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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26579551">Avatar: Until the End</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vhex/pseuds/Vhex'>Vhex</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aang (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Aang (Avatar)-centric, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Continuation, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:01:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>34,289</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26579551</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vhex/pseuds/Vhex</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been five years since the battle between Avatar Aang and Phoenix King Ozai, and yet world peace is still but a fantasy. Leaders strive for it. The people dream of it. The Avatar blazes the trail to the unity and cooperation that might one day bring about this utopian vision. But what happens when he falls out of line? What happens when the Avatar becomes... a weapon?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang/Katara (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>42</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Northward Bound</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong><em>Water.</em> </strong>
</p><p>The coursing rapids of the river churned like a boiling pot. The fish native to the waterway had long abandoned their homes amongst the rocks and mud. The commotion nearby was simply too much.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>Earth.</em> </strong>
</p><p>The ground thundered with a million steps. Insects and vermin scurried away, horrified by the oncoming overland earthquake.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>Fire.</em> </strong>
</p><p>The grassy fields were ablaze. An inferno danced above the meadow, turning the greenery black and disintegrating the shrubbery.</p><p>
  <strong> <em>Air.</em> </strong>
</p><p>The wind howled like a wolf, ruffling clothing, billowing branches, and buffeting the birds circling the battlefield. It was powerful; overwhelming, even. And it wasn’t natural.</p><p>Aang bent the atmosphere to his will. The vortex he had created sucked in the flames and rocks that flew across the ranks as firebenders and earthbenders volleyed their deadly debris from either side of the front lines. “I can’t keep this up <em>forever</em>, guys!” he yelled.</p><p>Toph slammed her foot into the ground. A large cube of stone erupted from the dirt, which she kicked hard into a row of firebenders. Some wore old, complete Fire Nation uniforms, but most were clad in an odd mixture of rags and armor. “I thought the <em>Avatar </em>was supposed to be all-powerful.”</p><p>“Clearly, I’m not!” Aang grunted, finally relinquishing his control of the makeshift tornado and letting the earth and fire bowl over the front row of firebenders.</p><p>“Katara, where did you <em>go</em>?” Sokka screamed, his sword clashing with an enemy nonbender’s blade. Next to him, Suki gracefully outmaneuvered every jab, slice, and fireball thrown at her. Sokka was a sweaty mess, but her face paint wasn’t even smudged.</p><p>Suddenly, the entire river jumped to attention. It stopped its peaceful flow downstream and leapt into the air, leaving the riverbed bone dry, before swirling up into a massive waterspout and crashing down upon the firebenders. An instant later, the liquid froze, trapping them in a solid block of ice. Katara fell to her knees on the other side of the riverbed, clearly exhausted from the effort of moving so much water at once.</p><p>“That’s where she went,” Suki remarked.</p><p>“I can see that,” Sokka said flatly, trying to yank his foot out of the ice it had been trapped in.</p><p>Aang strolled over, put his hand to the small glacier, and warmed it to slush, freeing Sokka and causing him to stumble over backward into the dirt.</p><p>“Your precision needs work, Katara!” Sokka exclaimed.</p><p>“I wasn’t going for precision,” she replied, breathing hard as she walked over to the gang. “I was trying to stop an army.”</p><p>“How is it that it’s been <em>five </em>years since the war ended and we <em>still </em>have pro-Ozai rebellions popping up around the world every other week?” Aang wondered aloud.</p><p>“He was a popular guy,” reasoned Sokka.</p><p>“Ozai wasn’t popular, the <em>idea </em>of Ozai was popular,” clarified Suki. “His cult of personality ran deep in the Fire Nation and the colonies.”</p><p>“True. Zuko was telling me how hard it’s been to de-Ozai-ify everything,” admitted Aang. “Speaking of him, we should probably get back to the capital and tell him these guys are dealt with.”</p><p>“We can’t just leave them like this,” Katara said, gesturing to the frozen rebels. “What if the ice melts?”</p><p>“We can stop over at that town we saw when we were flying in. They had a garrison there, I think.”</p><p>The five of them piled onto Appa and zoomed off. They made it to the small town, which, thankfully, was flying the new, postwar banners and markings of the Fire Nation. Zuko had decided to update the threatening trident-like spiked blaze of the old regime with a softer, more friendly flame. Before it had seemed the insignia of the Fire Nation was a deadly weapon, but now it looked like a warm, cozy campfire—truly emblematic of what Fire Lord Zuko was attempting to do with his country. Practically the entire village spilled out of their homes and shops to greet the Avatar and his friends, and the officer in charge of military defense was eager to hear of their exploits in taking down the northern rebels.</p><p>“They’ve been plaguing our town for a while now,” he sighed, nodding along as Aang recounted the adventure. “I can’t thank you enough for ridding us of those fools. They loot our shipments every other week for supplies.”</p><p>The young Avatar grinned. “It was our pleasure. Fire Lord Zuko sends his regards.”</p><p>Content that the rebels would be cleaned up, the adventurers all climbed back onto the great sky bison and took off into the sky. By the time they reached the Fire Nation Capital, the midmorning sun had already dipped below the horizon. Appa spiraled down, landing in the courtyard outside of the Royal Palace. Aang nuzzled his head as everyone streamed off and up the staircase into the building, past the rows of guardsmen and into its labyrinthian guts. They found their way to the throne room, where some familiar faces were waiting for them.</p><p>Fire Lord Zuko leaned on his throne, chatting animatedly with the person sitting in it, his pregnant wife, Mai. As always, the long fire pit immediately before them was unlit, showing Zuko would not be separated from his people in the same way his ancestors had been. Two Kyoshi Warriors stood rigidly in front of a pair of pillars, constantly scanning every nook and cranny of the room. Zuko had already escaped seven assassination attempts in his five years on the throne, and he wasn’t eager for another one. The Fire Lord stopped midsentence when he saw Aang and the gang walking through his front doors, his golden eyes lighting up like a wildfire. “Team Avatar returns!”</p><p>“It’s catching on!” Sokka yelped, punching the air.</p><p>“In your dreams,” Katara muttered.</p><p>Aang knelt briefly, then rose to relay his information. “Fire Lord Zuko, we have defeated the northern rebellion. The culprits have been taken into custody by a local military garrison.”</p><p>The man with the scarred face nodded. “Thank you, Aang. I’ll send a force up there to collect them. How was the trip? I’m sorry I couldn’t join you five up there this time.”</p><p>Mai frowned. “Going bounty hunting with your friends isn’t exactly the behavior one expects of the Fire Lord. Especially when the Fire Lord’s wife is seven months along.”</p><p>Zuko placed a hand on her shoulder. “Err… right. That, too.”</p><p>“It was just another adventure,” Aang said, shrugging. “You didn’t miss out on much.”</p><p>“We knocked a couple of heads together is all,” Toph added.</p><p>“Katara picked up a river,” stated Sokka.</p><p>“Aang made a cyclone,” Katara threw in.</p><p>“Didn’t miss out on much, huh?” chuckled Zuko. “It’s alright, really. Why don’t you all go find your rooms and rest up? We’ll discuss further strategy tomorrow morning, before Aang and I leave for Yu Dao.”</p><p>“Sounds good to me,” agreed the airbender.</p><p>Team Avatar filed out of the throne room, on their way to their usual sleeping quarters at the Royal Palace. Suki and Sokka slunk off, practically glued at the hip. From their hushed whispers and Suki’s intermittent case of the giggles, Aang presumed just <em>one</em> of their guest bedrooms would be being used that night. They were engaged, after all. Toph… well, Toph disappeared, as usual. Aang had no idea where she went during nights in the Fire Nation. Maybe she’d found a particularly nice cave to sleep in? Practiced her earthbending? Made pottery? He didn’t know, and frankly didn’t care. What she did on her own time was her business.</p><p>Aang and Katara walked together through the halls, eventually climbing a set of marble staircases to the second floor, where their rooms waited. Instead of immediately going in, however, Katara tugged her boyfriend away and led him out onto a balcony. The last whisps of the fading sun turned the sky pink and purple as the moon awoke.</p><p>“I forgot you were going to Yu Dao tomorrow,” she whispered, just loud enough for Aang to hear.</p><p>He slid his arm around her shoulders. “I’ve been lamenting going there all day. I’m not sure how I’m gonna survive without you.”</p><p>“I could go with you, you know,” Katara offered. “Appa has plenty of room for both of us and Zuko.”</p><p>“Zuko’s taking his own ship.”</p><p>“More room for me, then.”</p><p>“Hmm… I’m not sure it’s the best idea. Weren’t you supposed to go to the South Pole with Sokka and Suki and check up on your grandmother?”</p><p>“The South Pole isn’t going anywhere,” she breathed, pulling him into a kiss. “But you are.”</p><p>“Well… maybe we can—” Out of the corner of his eye, in the doorway, Aang noticed movement. Instantly, he bent the air and sent a tidal wave of wind towards his perceived attacker.</p><p>“Ow!” exclaimed a surprised, windblown Zuko, flat on his butt in the doorway. “I can’t even walk around my own palace in peace?”</p><p>Aang cringed, extricating himself from a chuckling Katara’s arms. “Sorry about that, Zuko. Did you want to talk to me?”</p><p>The Fire Lord picked himself up and scratched the back of his head, saying, “No, actually, I wanted to talk to Katara… but you should probably hear this too.” From his robes he produced a tightly bound scroll that he opened with a flourish and held out to the couple.</p><p>The waterbender’s eyes widened as she skimmed the contents of the scroll. “The Northern Water Tribe has been <em>attacked</em>?”</p><p>“What?” Aang yelled.</p><p>“It’s true, I’m afraid. I just received this scroll as you all were leaving. It seems the Southern Raiders have moved north,” Zuko said. “I don’t think Katara and I made a great impression on them when we were searching for her mother’s… well, you know.”</p><p>Aang frowned, rereading the letter. “They’re still around? So, they’ve evaded us for years, and then they just attack the Northern Water Tribe with no provocation? They have to want <em>something</em> out of it.”</p><p>Zuko scowled. “We don’t know what they want, but the Water Tribe has put out a call for all waterbenders available to come north to help defend in case the Raiders return. Master Pakku specifically requested Katara’s help.”</p><p>“I’ll go,” she said firmly. “They’re my people, too.”</p><p>“I should go too,” Aang announced. “I’m sure the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation won’t start another century-long war if I don’t show up as a liaison tomorrow.”</p><p>Katara shook her head. “No, Aang. They need you in Yu Dao. I have to do this myself.”</p><p>The airbender sighed but nodded in agreement. “If you really feel that way… alright. Just promise me you’ll stay safe.”</p><p>She smiled. “I will.”</p><p>“What about Sokka?” Zuko pressed.</p><p>“What about him? He’s not a waterbender, and besides, I don’t think him going to the North Pole will stir up any <em>desirable </em>memories,” mused Katara.</p><p>The Fire Lord bit his lip. “Right, uh… the whole ‘<em>my girlfriend turned into the moon</em>’ thing.”</p><p>“I mostly meant you trying to kill us, but yeah, reminding him of Yue when he’s set to marry Suki seems cruel.”</p><p>“Okay, well, I’ve already apologized enough for trying to kill all of my current friends, so I’m just going to pretend you didn’t bring that up. The ship leaves tomorrow morning at dawn, Katara, and the Northern Water Tribe is set to pick you up in the Northern Air Temple. Be there on time, please. Goodnight and good luck,” Zuko said, waving goodbye. He rubbed his eyes, exhausted from a long day, and disappeared into the palace.</p><p>Aang leaned against the railing, hands dangling over the edge, trying to absorb all the information that had just been thrust upon him. Finally, he just groaned loudly and announced, “I’m going to go fly for a bit. Clear my head.”</p><p>As he reached for his glider, Katara placed a hand on his arm. “Can I come too? Keep you company?”</p><p>The Avatar smiled. “Definitely.”</p><p>He grabbed his staff and popped open the wings. He grabbed the front rung with his left hand, and wrapped his right around Katara’s waist, while she did the opposite. Once their feet were situated in the back, the airbender sent a huge gust of wind below them and rocketed straight into the darkening sky. The pair of them had done this before, and it had, over the years, become Aang’s favorite way to just… exist. He was in his element, joined with the person he loved most in the world, and they could just watch all the earth beneath them. The glider soared higher, pausing at the apex of its climb, then nosedived down, angled straight at the capital city. Katara let out a shriek, but Aang laughed with glee, feeling the wind whip at his face.</p><p>“Don’t you just love flying?” the teen yelled.</p><p>“Not as much as I like <em>liviiiiiing</em>!” she screamed, clutching him tighter as they pulled out of the dive and into a loop.</p><p>Aang decided to stop with the fancy tricks and instead just glide lazily over the metropolis below, which was turning in for the night. Firebenders methodically patrolled the streets, lighting lamps and kindly informing people that curfew was coming in just a short while. Children playing in the streets were ushered inside to bed. Only the plazas at the center of town, full of fancy restaurants and expensive markets selling luxury goods, were still full of people. Aang’s eyes wandered from the city and up to the jagged walls of the crater it was built in, inevitably stopping on the stars above. The sun finally slumbering, the moon and its friends had moved in to illuminate the sky.</p><p>“It’s beautiful,” Katara gasped, drinking everything in.</p><p>Aang replied, “Want to get a bit closer?”</p><p>“Depends on what you want us to get closer <em>to</em>. Because even though I <em>know</em> you would catch me if I fell, I still don’t want to go up too high.”</p><p>“The city, I mean.”</p><p>“Oh. Yes, that sounds nice.”</p><p>The young couple spiraled low, close enough that if Katara had reached out her fingertips would have grazed the rooftops. Aang decided he didn’t want to disturb any of the residential buildings after dark, however, and he soon pulled up, jetting over to a very private, but very welcoming structure: the new temple dedicated to Avatar Roku in the center of the city. Zuko had had it constructed as a central point of reinventing modern Fire Nation culture, simultaneously honoring the heritage the country (and Zuko) could be proud of and also sweeping the more problematic days of Sozin, Azulon, and Ozai out of the spotlight.</p><p>“Hopefully, Roku won’t mind,” said the waterbender as they touched down on the gently sloping roof.</p><p>“Well, I don’t mind, and technically I am him, so I think we’ll be fine,” Aang responded, closing his glider, and taking a seat next to her at the ledge.</p><p>“How does that work, anyway?” she wondered. “Your past lives.”</p><p>Aang shrugged. “Eh… it’s complicated. Calling the lives of Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk, and the others <em>my</em> past lives is a bit of a misnomer. Like, I’m the Avatar, and they were the Avatar, but we aren’t the same.”</p><p>“That’s only made me more confused.”</p><p>The airbender leaned back onto his elbows, watching the square below. “Think of it this way: your dad is the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, right? And there were chiefs before him. But while they held the same role, they faced different problems and were different people from different eras. The Avatar is something like that. I’m the Avatar, and Roku was the Avatar, but we’re different people.”</p><p>Katara nodded slowly. “So… you’re just Aang, really.”</p><p>“Just Aang,” he agreed. “Or at least, that’s the best I can figure out. I suppose I won’t really know until I wind up in that weird cloud dimension the other Avatar incarnations hang out in.”</p><p>“Well, that won’t be for a long time yet,” Katara sighed, slinging her arm around his shoulders. “Avatar Kyoshi lived to be 230, after all.”</p><p>“Yeah. But let’s just focus on the here and now,” Aang offered, kissing her softly.</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>The docks were filled with the hustle and bustle of a lively seaside port. Sailors, navy men, traders, and shopkeepers milled about, buying and selling, walking and talking. Carts of fish and other aquatic life sat adjacent to Fire Navy ammunition and crates of coal. Momo, being the hyperactive little lemur that he was, flew through the stands selling freshly cooked salmon and juicy moon peaches, trying his best to snag something to eat. “Hey, you little rat! Give that back!” yelled a shopkeeper, swatting at Momo, who had made off with a hunk of banana.</p><p>The lemur chittered indignantly in reply, as if he were laughing, dodged another slap, and flew up and away. He soon circled back down, landing on Aang’s shoulder, and dug into his hard-won fruit.</p><p>The Avatar rubbed his eyes, still drowsy from waking up so early. “You’re <em>sure </em>you’re fine doing this alone? I really can come help you if you think the North will need it.”</p><p>Katara shook her head. “Aang, I’ll be fine. They need you in Yu Dao, and they need me up there. And I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”</p><p>“I never said you weren’t.”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>“<em>Everyone aboard, the ship is leaving for the Northern Air Temple!</em>” roared the voice of the captain from up on deck.</p><p>“That’s my call,” Katara said.</p><p>Aang took her hand and stared into her big blue eyes. “I love you, Katara. I want you to know that.”</p><p>She smiled wide. “I love you too, Aang. I’ll love you forever.”</p><p>“Until the end?” he asked.</p><p>Katara nodded. “Until the end.”</p><p>He kissed her on the forehead. She smiled as she turned to walk up the gangplank, shouldering her rucksack. Momo suddenly realized what was going on. He looked at Aang, then looked at Katara. “Go with her, Momo,” Aang suggested, scratching the lemur’s floppy ears. “She could use a friend.”</p><p>Momo chattered again, then soared up to the deck of the Fire Navy ship. He found Katara at the edge, waving down to the last airbender as the engine groaned and sputtered to life. The ship lurched forward, dragging through the water. Soon the docks, and the bald, tattooed boy on them, were but a memory.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Out of Touch</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Come on, you maggots! Is that all you’ve got?”</p><p>Toph Beifong paced back and forth among the lines of her students. At just seventeen, she was younger than many of them, but she commanded the room with ease. Despite the fact that she was blind, not a toe stepped out of line, <em>ever</em>. It didn’t matter if she couldn’t see you. Her presence was enough to make any wannabe bender sweat. Case in point, the five rows of metalbending students she was beating into shape.</p><p>“Fix your stance, Mako!” she spat.</p><p>The girl in question quickly shifted her feet.</p><p>“Alright everyone, chin up, back straight! Give me basic Beifong form followed by the Flying Hammer!”</p><p>The world seemed to slow down as soon as she gave that order. Between the vibrations she felt through her feet, the sounds reverberating against her eardrums, and the smell of sweat, blood, and tears infiltrating her nostrils, Toph had a perfect mental picture of the world in that moment. Twenty feet lifted in unison, reached out in unison, and slammed down in unison. The squeak of toes against tatami mats signified the pivot. Twenty fists hit the ground, and the distinct sound of metal screeching as the straight iron rod each student had been practicing with bent towards the floor. They let out a roar together, and carried the momentum given from the previous technique into the next, bringing their far leg into the air and rocketing their heels into the top of the rods. Twenty screams of pain and twenty choruses of curses followed.</p><p>Toph rolled her faded green eyes. “Spirits, you’re all incompetent! The Flying Hammer is the easiest metalbending combat technique and we’ve been working on it for days now! And you all still can’t do it!”</p><p>“With all due respect, ma’am,” piped a nervous voice, “We’ve only had instruction from you for two days in the past month. You keep disappearing with your friends.”</p><p>The whole class buzzed with hushed whispers. Toph could hear each and every one of them, but they all seemed to be saying the same thing: you had to be <em>really </em>stupid to talk back to Sifu Beifong, even if you <em>were </em>right. The earthbender marched over to that high-pitched voice and jabbed a finger into the chest of its owner. “You say something?”</p><p>“Uh, n-no, no ma’am. I said nothing. Nothing at all,” the quivering, flabby man blurted. Toph could smell the sweat on his forehead.</p><p>“Good. I think it’s time for a <em>demonstration</em> of some metalbending techniques,” she barked, jabbing her open palm skyward. The metal rods around the room shuddered and straightened out, before hovering several inches above the ground. “Metalbending requires focus. More focus than earthbending. You have to be able to feel the vibrations within the metal, and you have to reach in there and grab its soul. It’s not easy.” The teen turned to face the rest of her class. “But it shouldn’t be hard, either.”</p><p>As she finished speaking, all twenty rods flew into the air and began to dart around the room like they had minds of their own. Some clashed like sword meeting sword. Others played a makeshift round of darts, scoring bullseyes by impaling the flying boar painted on the wall in the belly. Still more chased each other in a game of tag. The class “oohed” and “aahed”, watching the exposition above them, until Toph raised her hand sharply and the metal rods fell back to earth, banging many students in the head. “That’s <em>beginner’s level stuff</em>! I figured it out all on my own in under a year, and you idiots can’t even dent an I-beam!” she thundered, denting her student’s spirits. “Try it again!”</p><p>They tried it again. And again. And again. By the fifth go-around, a quarter of the class had managed to perform the move and squash the rods into short cylinders the diameter of a coin. The rest had terrible bruises covering their feet. Supremely annoyed, Toph stormed out of the room.</p><p>A hushed voice wondered, “Should we keep practicing, or…”</p><p>“<em>Keep practicing!</em>”</p><p>Toph collapsed amongst the gnarled roots of an ancient tree behind her humble metalbending school. Sometimes she hated teaching. No, scratch that—she <em>always </em>hated teaching. But she was the greatest earthbender of all time. It would be a disservice—nay, a <em>crime</em>—to deprive the world of her skill and power. If that meant teaching sweaty preteens the ways of metalbending, so be it. She grunted, retched, spat into the dirt, let out a long, loud groan of pure anguish, and flopped backward, letting her hands fall to the grass.</p><p><em>I need a vacation… </em>she thought, as sleep came to claim her.</p><p>
  <em>THOOM!</em>
</p><p>The world, it seemed, didn’t think she needed one.</p><p>“What the fu—” she gasped in a strangled yelp, falling face-first from the root she had been perched atop. A great bellow like a Fire Nation foghorn exploded across the landscape. Toph leapt to her feet and readied herself for a battle, adrenaline pumping through her veins. Then, suddenly, she realized the vibrations she felt in her toes were <em>familiar </em>vibrations, and the foghorn was replaced by a fuzzy white beast in her mind. “Appa?”</p><p>“Get on!” ordered Aang. Not a hint of his usual, cheerful self was present.</p><p>“What? I’m in the middle of a lesson!” she protested.</p><p>“You’d better get on, it’s serious,” insisted Zuko. “We left the Yu Dao summit for this.”</p><p>“What happened?” asked Toph.</p><p>Zuko grit his teeth. “We’re going to the South Pole.”</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>Aang was falling asleep. Try as he might, he just couldn’t keep his eyes open. These diplomatic missions were a necessity, but they weren’t what one would call <em>fun</em>. He had only just turned eighteen, after all. These meetings and debates and political squabbles were meant for people twice his age, not grown-up kids high on hormones. But, still, Avatar duties called, and here he was sitting in between the two most powerful men on the planet: Fire Lord Zuko of the Fire Nation, and Earth King Kuei. To Aang’s left were the Fire Nation’s representatives, and to his right were those of the Earth Kingdom, seated at a table that curved in a semicircle around a small podium, where a diplomat or nobleman or something droned on and on about trade deals concerning moon peaches under the skylight of the vaulted ceiling.</p><p>His vision began to fade as his eyes slid shut, until Zuko elbowed him in the side. “Stay awake.”</p><p>“I’m trying,” the younger boy whispered in reply. “Why is this even something they need to address the Fire Lord and Earth King about?”</p><p>“I’m not really sure, I haven’t been paying close attention. I’ll just skim the minutes later.”</p><p>Aang’s eyebrow crawled up his forehead. “Zuko, come on. I’m not one to talk, but you’re the <em>Fire Lord</em>.”</p><p>“I’m more invested than Kuei is,” he hissed, jerking his head to point out the Earth King, who was trying—and failing—to hide his pet bear Bosco under the table.</p><p>“Avatar Aang! Fire Lord Zuko!”</p><p>The two young men snapped to attention. They’d been caught. The Earth Kingdom official at the podium was livid, sneering, “I know that <em>taxes </em>and <em>diplomacy </em>and <em>trade </em>isn’t as <em>fun </em>as Agni Kais or saving the world, but they <em>are </em>a necessity.”</p><p>“Agni Kais are illegal now, actually,” Zuko chimed.</p><p>The diplomat rolled his eyes. “I really don’t care. The issue on the table right now is piracy on the northwestern coast of the Earth Kingdom, where huge amounts of moon peaches have been going missing as of late and—”</p><p>Suddenly, a messenger barged into the room. She was frantically waving a letter, and yelling, “Avatar Aang! Avatar Aang! I have an urgent message for you!”</p><p>“Oh, what is it <em>now</em>?” the impatient official groaned, exasperated.</p><p>Aang took the letter and sliced the envelope open with a blade of air. His heart leapt into his throat as he read its contents. <em>Sokka… Hakoda… Pakku… Kanna… Only the Avatar can help. Tragedy has struck… Oh spirits!</em></p><p>“I have to leave!” he yelled, leaping out of his chair and sprinting off.</p><p>“<em>What are you doing young man?</em>” screeched the man at the podium, but he received no reply.</p><p>Zuko frowned and read over the letter. “What could possibly be so impor—” Reaching the end, he stood abruptly and said, “I’m really very sorry, but we’re going to have to reschedule this meeting for another time. Earth King Kuei, read the letter, I hope you’ll understand why. Good day.”</p><p>The Fire Lord bowed gracefully, then dashed away after the Avatar very <em>un</em>gracefully.</p><p>“But, but… <em>moon peaches</em>!” screamed the official, tearing his papers in half.</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>Master Pakku watched a small orb of water hover in front of his nose. He idly moved it through the air, turning it into a cylinder and making it orbit his hand. Bored, he sighed, and cast it off to the side, letting it fall into the snow.</p><p>“No sign of the ship, Sifu Pakku?” called a voice.</p><p>The waterbending master jumped and spun around. The worried face of a young girl no older than twelve stared back at him. She was one of his new students named… Kali? He couldn’t keep track of everyone, especially as his classes had effectively doubled in size since girls had been allowed to join combat lessons five years ago. The Avatar and his friends had certainly made a lasting impression on Northern Water Tribe culture in the few short days they’d spent up there during the war. Whenever Katara came north, she would be flocked by ecstatic young girls who wanted to see the woman who’d put the tribe’s sexist foot in its mouth. And with good reason. Katara was the best waterbender Pakku had ever encountered and was a master of the art in her own right. That was why he had called for her, and that was why he sat here, waiting, for his step-granddaughter to arrive.</p><p>“No sign of the ship,” he confirmed, nodding slightly.</p><p>“Aww, I wanted to see Miss Katara!”</p><p>“<em>Sifu </em>Katara,” Pakku corrected.</p><p>“Do you know when she’s going to get here?” the little girl asked.</p><p>He frowned. He <em>did </em>know when she was supposed to get here: yesterday. The fact that the Water Tribe ships sent to retrieve her from the Northern Outpost hadn’t returned yet worried him, but Pakku shrugged it off. Aside from the Southern Raiders, the North Pole had been hit by a few nasty storms the past couple of weeks. It was more than likely such an occurrence had delayed them. “No, I don’t, I’m afraid,” he lied. “Why don’t you go run along and practice some basic forms? You could always use the—”</p><p>“<em>Ship ahoy!</em>” screamed the men at the docks.</p><p>In an instant, Pakku was on his feet. He stared out into the harbor, where a trio of Water Tribe ships were coming into port. They were badly damaged, scarred with burns and holes, and the sailors on board looked weary. Pakku scanned the crowd gathering at the docks, worry growing in the pit of his stomach. The waterbender sprinted as fast as his aged legs could carry him and leapt over the edge of the wall. As he fell, he summoned the power of the moon to raise the tides, and he was caught by a wave that carried him down the length of the canal in a flash and gently dropped him off by the frigid sea. Pakku barreled through the mass of people to get to the crew. Everyone was accounted for. Every face he had seen off a few days before was present. Except, something was missing. He ran off, in desperate need of a pen and parchment and a direct line of communication with the Avatar. As he went, one question was bouncing around in his brain:</p><p>
  <em>Where was Katara?</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Author’s Note: Hi! As you can probably tell, I’m new to this, both fanfiction and the world of Avatar, which I just binge-watched a few weeks ago and have swiftly become addicted to. I’ve written before on the web, but this is my first try at honest narrative writing with an audience. I’ve got big plans for this story, which I know doesn’t exactly seem the case with these short chapters, but I promise they’ll be longer soon! Thanks for checking this story out.<br/>(Oh, and by the way, this particular chapter has the chronological order of Pakku -&gt; Aang -&gt; Toph, in case you were confused by why Aang seemingly picked up Toph and then was suddenly in Yu Dao.)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Hurricane Season</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Katara stood on the deck of a submarine. The scent of salt on the wind tickled her nose as she stared out into the distance, watching where the azure sky met the turquoise sea. She’d always found the ocean to be beautiful no matter where she was, be it the freezing waters of the South Pole or the tropical tides of Ember Island. She’d been carried around the world on too many crusades to count, but the ocean was always her link to home. Katara felt herself smile. She closed her eyes, addicted to the aroma of the fresh sea spray. When she opened them again, she gasped in shock.</p><p>“Aang? What are you doing here?” the waterbender exclaimed. “I thought you were in Yu Dao.”</p><p>He didn’t say a word. His orange robes fluttered as he just stood there, staring at her. Then the airbender stepped forward, planted a delicate kiss on her lips, and popped open his glider.</p><p>“Wait, don’t go!” Katara yelped, but it was too late. He was already gone, flying away from her into the horizon. Suddenly, she felt fourteen again, blushing furiously, her heart twisted into a pretzel and her mind hazy with adolescent infatuation. Defeated, Katara turned and climbed down the ladder into the interior of the submarine. But she wasn’t in a submarine. She was in a cavern. The space was enormous, large enough to swallow Ba Sing Se whole. Then she realized she’d been here before: this was the sunken city <em>underneath </em>of Ba Sing Se. Stalactites and stalagmites pockmarked with massive deposits of glowing green crystals were everywhere, rising from the ground and jutting down from the ceiling, casting an eerie emerald sheen upon everything. At the bottom of the cave were people. It took Katara a second to make out who they were, and then she realized they were her friends facing off against the Fire Nation.</p><p>“No!” she screamed, leaping from her ledge and into the fray.</p><p>Katara had jumped from a height great enough to shatter every bone in her body, but she simply rolled to standing. Her friends were arranged in a circle, all of them alert and ready to fight, fully surrounded by the Fire Nation. Everyone was dead silent. No snide remarks from Toph, no bold declarations of honor from Zuko, no helpful tips from Suki, no bad jokes from Sokka, no encouraging words from Aang. They just stood there in battle stances. Suddenly, a hysterical laugh filled the chamber, as Azula, mad Princess of the Fire Nation, emerged from the endless rows of firebenders. Her form flickered between her distinguished, collected, and ruthless appearance she’d put on when tracking Team Avatar across the globe, and the utterly insane persona Katara had put in chains all those years ago. The waterbender hadn’t seen the former princess in years, but this older version was the spitting image of Zuko’s mother.</p><p>“Hello, little girl!” Azula cackled, electricity arcing up and down her body. “You didn’t <em>really </em>think you could keep me locked away forever, did you?”</p><p>“Azula? What are you doing here?” Katara demanded, confused why Zuko hadn’t noticed his sister was here.</p><p>“I’m here for a rematch, since you <em>cheated</em> in our last Agni Kai!”</p><p>“You’re deranged.”</p><p>“No Water Tribe <em>savage </em>will refer to the Fire Lord in that manner!” Azula shrieked, throwing a bolt of lightning at Katara as all hell broke loose on the battlefield.</p><p>Katara quickly threw up a shield of water and blocked the electrical charge. No one seemed to be paying her any attention except for the crazed girl volleying lightning at her. Massive cyan flames exploded from Azula’s palms like the breath of a dragon, and Katara just barely managed to pull enough water from the underground canal flowing near her feet to stop it in midair. Another fireball zipped past her head. She tried to smack the princess with a water whip but couldn’t get in close enough quickly enough. It was all she could do to protect herself from the never-ending barrage of flame and water. Katara wondered if this was how Aang had felt when fighting Ozai five years prior, helpless and scared. She certainly was terrified, and she’d be lying if she said otherwise. Azula’s onslaught was hot enough that the instant it contacted Katara’s defensive waves, they boiled into hot air.</p><p>“Whatever happened to that <em>fearsome </em>warrior I fought in the Capital City? Did Zuzu infect you with his cowardice?” the firebender drawled.</p><p>“I-I’m not afraid of you!” Katara shot back.</p><p>“Then <em>fight me</em>!”</p><p>The waterbender paused. She tried to clear her mind and regain control of herself. She ignored the fear, ignored the adrenaline, and concentrated. Immediately, her water reformed into eight long, powerful arms that swayed in the air: octopus form. Azula’s smug expression dropped for only a moment, but Katara could see the fear in those cold, dead eyes. One tentacle jabbed at the princess, which she vaporized with a blast of fire. Another one went for her ankle, which she avoided, but then another tentacle clipped her shoulder, and a fourth grabbed her by the knee. Suddenly, the madwoman was ensnared in a liquid spider’s web, unable to move, her head just above the water so she could breathe. “I knew you had it in you!” Azula cheered. “You’re so much like me you don’t even realize it yet.”</p><p>“I am <em>nothing </em>like you!” Katara spat.</p><p>“Hmm, let’s see: a young woman with a missing mother, daddy issues, an annoying older brother, and a lust for control. Am I talking about you, or me?”</p><p>Katara’s eye twitched, and, without realizing what she was doing, she found one hand around the princess’ neck, and a particularly pointy icicle in her other.</p><p>Azula laughed and laughed and laughed. “Kill me, Katara! Do it!”</p><p>The waterbender lifted the makeshift dagger high with a trembling hand. She was shaking violently. She’d only felt like this once before when she’d stared her mother’s murderer in the face. Suddenly her knees buckled, and she collapsed, crying. “I can’t.”</p><p>“Tsk tsk. A shame,” Azula tutted. In a flash, her arm was free of the octopus’ grasp, and then as Katara’s concentration disintegrated, so too did the aquatic prison. She braced for the end, but when she looked up, expecting Azula’s hollow eyes to be staring back at hers, she saw she was not the target.</p><p>Aang was.</p><p>“<em>No!</em>” screamed Katara.</p><p>It was too late. Azula’s lightning flew through the air, up to where Aang hovered above the swarm of Fire Nation soldiers. It struck him in the back, ripping through his pale skin, sending off a cloud of smoke and the odor of burnt flesh. Katara felt like her heart had exploded. She flew to her feet, bowled over Azula, and summoned a tidal wave to carry her as fast as possible. The waters flooded the battlefield, crashing over enemies and allies alike, but Katara reached the falling Avatar just in time, catching him in her arms and hugging him tightly. For a single moment, she thought everything would be alright. Then she realized she couldn’t feel his heartbeat.</p><p>“No,” she whispered, putting her ear to his chest. “Nononononono…”</p><p>There was nothing.</p><p>“<em>HAHAHAHAHAHA!</em>”</p><p>Katara looked up, tears streaming down her cheeks, and saw Princess Azula approaching her, laughing uproariously. “You… you… how <em>could you</em>?” she choked.</p><p>Azula just kept laughing, doubling over in absolute hysterics.</p><p>The waterbender’s gaze bounced around her friends, who all stood there doing nothing. They didn’t even look fazed by Aang’s death at the hands of the insane princess. “Do none of you <em>care</em>? Am I the only person around here who <em>cares </em>about him?” She felt the anger within her rising, flowing through her, overtaking her. The rage built until it was rage no more. Katara’s pain was blinding, but she could hardly feel it. A great wind picked up around her, which was strange, given that she was underground. Her feet lifted off from the stone floor as she slowly ascended into the air. Her eyes turned a blinding, shocking white, a color spilling over into her brown hair. She glowed like a new sun. Katara had seen something like this before, but she’d never experienced it. Somehow, she’d entered the Avatar State. The four elements wrapped around her, and in her arms, she held Aang.</p><p>“<em>You have slain the Avatar,</em>” Katara boomed, her glowing eyes unfeeling but the tears streaming from them betraying her true emotion. “<em>You have killed the man I love. And for that, you must now pay the ultimate price.</em>”</p><p>Water, earth, fire, and air swirled into one tendril, and from her guiding hand it lashed out with calculated precision, embedding itself in the throat of the giggling Princess Azula. She fell silent. The only sound left was the roar of the sea in Katara’s ears, and the nagging tone of her brother. She tried to block it out, but Sokka’s voice grew louder and louder, commanding, “Katara, <em>wake up</em>!”</p><p>She jolted awake, her chest heaving. The waterbender kicked off her blankets and sat up and pulled her knees to her forehead, trying to forget the nightmare.</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>Private Riza stalked the decks of the HMS <em>Tinder</em>, following the steps of her patrol exactly. She was a new recruit to the navy, having sought a life different than her mother’s in the misogynistic Fire Nation, but she knew her superiors would not hesitate to send her back to her small town and condemn her to a monotonous existence as some man’s wife if she stepped out of line. Riza was always on high alert and hyperaware of every disturbance on her patch of deck. So, when she heard the strange noises by the rail, she naturally assumed the worst. It had to be intruders.</p><p>“Halt! Put your hands in the air!” she ordered in a shaky voice, leaping out from behind the corner and thrusting her spear towards the lone, shadowed figure.</p><p>“Gah! What did I do?” squealed the girl, throwing up her arms.</p><p>At the sight of her cerulean eyes, Private Riza knew she’d just made a terrible mistake. “Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe? Oh spirits, I’m so so so sorry! I didn’t know it was you up here!” she babbled, falling to one knee. “Please, can you forgive me for this most inappropriate conduct?”</p><p>Katara frowned. “Of course. You were just doing your job, after all.” The waterbender extended her hand, which, after some hesitation, Riza took and let herself be pulled back up.</p><p>“I didn’t know there were women in the Fire Navy.”</p><p>She laughed nervously, scratching the back of her neck. “Yeah, it’s kind of a new thing. It’s part of Fire Lord Zuko’s Great Reforms.”</p><p>“Oh, right. I suppose I’ve heard all about those, but I’ve never had the chance to see the product of one in person.”</p><p>“If you don’t mind my asking, what are you doing on deck this late, Master Katara?” Riza questioned. “No offense meant, it’s my job to know.”</p><p>“None taken. I couldn’t sleep, had a bad dream. So, I came up here to hang out with Momo. And you can drop the ‘master’, by the way.”</p><p>“Of course, Ma— Katara. Who’s Momo?”</p><p>“The lemur I came with. You spooked him, so he’s gone now.”</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>The two young women stood there quietly for a moment, just enjoying the starry night sky. “I should probably get back to my rounds,” Riza finally announced. “Don’t want the captain finding out I’m shirking my duties.”</p><p>Katara began to nod, but stopped, sighing, “Can you stay and talk with me? I’ll speak to the captain for you if he finds out. I’m just worried to give my thoughts free reign over my mind.”</p><p>The private bit her lip but agreed to stay with her. She leaned her spear against the railing and tried to strike up a conversation with the living legend to her right. “So… your life must be pretty exciting. Travelling all over the world, dating the Avatar, being a waterbending master… you’re practically a celebrity.”</p><p>“I hope you’re not starstruck,” Katara chuckled.</p><p>Riza blushed. “You’re certainly not the untouchable and distant heroine the stories paint you as. They paint all of Team Avatar that way, really.”</p><p>“That’s a shame,” the older girl lamented. “There’s not a single person in our merry band I’d consider aloof. Even Toph is pretty down-to-earth, and she’s the one who won’t shut up about being the ‘greatest earthbender of all time’.” Riza let out a shouting laugh, but Katara just looked at her like she’d grown an extra head. “What was that for?”</p><p>Suddenly, Private Riza was tongue tied, as she tried to explain that she thought the waterbender had made a pun, which she now realized was wholly unintentional. Mercifully, Katara laughed, lifting the crushing weight of embarrassment from Riza’s shoulders. “That joke is worse than something my brother would dream up.”</p><p>“Is it true that Sokka is the greatest swordsman of our generation?” she gushed.</p><p>Katara giggled. “Who told you that, Sokka himself?”</p><p>“Um, no, but rumor has it that he fended off three firebenders at once during the Battle at Wulong Forest while saving Toph Beifong,” she recounted.</p><p>“Well, that’s not <em>exactly </em>true. My brother is a great swordsman, but I’m not sure I’d consider him the <em>best</em>. And for what it’s worth, he did save Toph, just not quite in that way.”</p><p>“How <em>did</em> he save her?”</p><p>“Well, he—what’s that on the horizon?”</p><p>“Hmm?” wondered Riza.</p><p>“That, on the horizon,” repeated Katara, pointing into the distance. “Is that a Fire Navy ship? It looks kinda old.”</p><p>The private followed her finger and saw the rapidly approaching steamer she was talking about. Katara was right, it did look old. Its design was distinctly different from the modern, postwar paintjob. But still, it flew the new colors of Zuko’s Fire Nation. It more than likely it was a repurposed wartime vessel coming into the Northern Outpost for refueling, something Riza told Katara, who still seemed suspicious. “When is the Northern Water Tribe supposed to pick me up, again?”</p><p>“At daybreak. The captain says he wants to hand you off while we’re still en route to the outpost, to throw off the scent of any undesirables who may be waiting for us there.” Riza squinted at the moon, which was low in the sky. “It shouldn’t be too long until dawn, to be honest.”</p><p>For the next few minutes, they returned to their conversation, though Katara kept one eye on that ship the entire time. It, the HMS <em>Meteor</em>, according to the name on the side, was quickly closing the gap, which, Riza reckoned, would likely make someone accustomed to Fire Nation ships firing at them on sight nervous. Still, it really was nothing to be worried about. The sun eventually peeked into the sky, turning the atmosphere vibrant colors befitting of an oil painting. As Riza was transfixed on the sunrise, though, Katara was watching something else.</p><p>“Oh Spirits, look! They’re changing their flag!” she yelled.</p><p>Riza whirled around and grabbed her spear. Sure enough, the battleship, now just a few hundred yards away, was taking down its banners and hoisting new colors. The Fire Navy recruit had only ever seen something like that once before, when a particularly rowdy bunch of pirates had snuck up on the <em>Tinder </em>down south. But this flag that was being unfurled was like no pirate flag Riza had ever seen before.</p><p>“Is that some sort of bird?” she wondered.</p><p>“Not just any bird,” Katara said through clenched teeth. “They’re sea ravens. Go wake up the captain. Get the ship on high alert, and everyone on deck who can hold a weapon.”</p><p>“Do you know these pirates?”</p><p>Katara grimaced. “They’re not pirates, Riza. They’re worse. These are the Southern Raiders. They’re the men who murdered my mother.”</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>Katara watched as Private Riza ran off at top speed, then got to work. She stretched out both arms and concentrated, pulling from the most basic of movements in waterbending: the simple push-pull of the tide. She found her rhythm quickly, and soon the entire ocean in front of her was under her command. <em>Back and forth, back and forth,</em> she thought. Her mind strayed, flitting back to the day she’d taught Aang how to do the very same thing, but then she shook her head. <em>Focus. </em>The enemy ship was close enough that she could hear the commotion on deck, but she tuned all of that out. The ocean was her sole point of attention. She was it and it was she. <em>Back and forth, back and forth.</em> The water began to move, slowly at first, then accelerating, until a wall of water had been summoned from the depths. <em>Back and forth, back and forth.</em> With a cry, Katara pushed and the tsunami slammed into the side of the Southern Raiders’ ship. It bobbed like a toy in a bathtub but refused to capsize.</p><p>Behind her, the HMS <em>Tinder </em>came alive. Dozens of crewmen flooded the deck, Captain Nizen and Private Riza leading the mob. Those that couldn’t firebend held swords, spears, clubs, pipes, monkey wrenches—anything they could get their hands on.</p><p>“Dammit, this was supposed to be a <em>safe </em>passage!” Nizen growled. “All crew to battle stations!”</p><p>As the sailors fanned out, Katara approached the captain. “Sir, if you don’t mind, I have my own ideas to—”</p><p>“Do whatever you want, Master Katara. Just don’t interfere with my men’s jobs.”</p><p>The young woman nodded and sprinted away. “Momo, where are you?” The white lemur popped his head out of a barrel of berries. His cheeks were stuffed full of the sweet fruits, and his ears flopped to one side. “There you are,” she sighed. “Go fly somewhere safe and up high. I can’t have you getting hurt.”</p><p>He squeaked in agreement and zipped into the sky, flying up to the rim of one of the ship’s smokestacks. Satisfied, Katara saw no point in staying on the ship any longer and vaulted the railing. Before hitting the water, a surfboard of ice had appeared under her feet, and she propelled it forward at high velocity. The first exchange of flaming boulders was catapulted across the ever-shrinking gap between the two ships as Katara frantically raised a wave that reached the deck of the Southern Raiders’ boat and froze it. She jumped from her board and practically flew up the hill, scaring the bejesus out of a Raider that was promptly ensnared in a cocoon of water and then frozen in place. Katara popped the cork on her canteen of bending water and formed a ring of liquid that orbited around her in much the same way that an asteroid belt flew around a planet. Anyone who came to close that she didn’t get the drop on first was immediately smacked by a water whip and had their feet frozen to the deck.</p><p>With the horrific sound of metal scraping across metal, an enormous arbalest fired, launching its great arrow across the canyon separating the Fire Navy from the Southern Raiders and piercing the hull of the <em>Tinder</em>. The arrowhead popped open into a grappling hook upon entry, and the chain it was attached to tugged on the <em>Tinder</em>, pulling it closer. Katara smacked an advancing Raider with a ball of water, pinned another to the ground with ice daggers, and ran to the side of the ship. Some of the firebenders she had disposed of were freed from their icy prisons by their comrades and were now exclusively targeting her. Katara dove overboard and grabbed the thick chain with a grunt.</p><p>“<em>FOR THE PHOENIX KING!</em>” roared the soldiers of the <em>Meteor</em>. She looked up and watched in horror as the Southern Raiders leapt from their deck and impacted the side of the <em>Tinder</em>. Instead of falling into the sea below, they hung there on the hull, and she realized they were wearing steel claws on their hands that dug into the ship. The first wave of Raiders began scrambling up.</p><p>“Katara, what do we do?” Private Riza yelled down. Over her head, another volley of burning stones was thrown at the <em>Meteor</em>.</p><p>“Tell Nizen to turn hard to the right! Full steam! Everything this thing’s got!” she shouted back, pulling herself up onto the chain.</p><p>The younger woman nodded and disappeared back on deck. It was all Katara could do to trust her as she began to execute her plan. An orb of oceanwater was raised to envelop the center of the chain and then frozen into a block of ice. She then bent the liquid into a curved, deadly sharp blade that she hurled into the chain with as much force as possible. Katara did it over and over, each time slowly chipping away at the center link. She almost fell into the sea when the <em>Tinder</em> abruptly lurched to the right, straining the chain even further. The plan was working.</p><p>“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the <em>savage girl</em>,” rumbled a gruff voice.</p><p>Katara emerged from her bubble of concentration to notice a Raider had snuck up on her. He moved deftly, like an acrobat, keeping perfect balance as he stalked her down the chain. She flailed wildly, trying to keep her own footing on the slippery, swaying metal. “What do you want?” she demanded.</p><p>“Do you want the official mission statement or the object of desire of this specific raid?” replied the Raider.</p><p>“Uh, what?”</p><p>“Never mind, I’ll just tell you both. Officially, we, the Southern Raiders, seek to topple the boy-king Zuko and bring the rightful ruler of the Fire Nation to power.”</p><p>“And what is your ‘object of desire’?” Katara implored, trying to move backward as the Raider advanced.</p><p>“Right now? You.”</p><p>The waterbender’s eyes widened in terror. The Raider quickly took the opportunity to throw a fireball at her, but Katara managed to barely block it with a jet of water. She stumbled back, eyeing the ocean below as her last resort. The firebender reared back to ready another pyre of flame, but Katara was too fast.</p><p>“You’re in my domain now,” she grumbled, throwing her arms high as the sea exploded and swept the Raider into the rough waters.</p><p>Desperate, Katara froze the chain one last time and kicked it as hard as she could. The weakened metal groaned and snapped, and the waterbender had just enough time to loop her wrist through a link and hold on as she fell. She hit the hull of the <em>Tinder </em>and felt the air leave her lungs, but she powered through and ascended as fast as she could. The decks were already overrun by Raiders, but if they could manage to get some distance on the <em>Meteor</em>…</p><p>Katara flipped over the railing and pulled water up with her, enough to make pentapus form, the weaker cousin of octopus form. A handful of Raiders charged her, but the five arms were more than enough to fend them off. One of them was thrown overboard, while another was tossed into the wall and glued there by a thick coating of ice. <em>If I can just hold out a little longer, we’ll have enough distance to—</em></p><p>The sound of an arbalest launching its payload rang out one more, and Katara spun on her heel to see a second chain had embedded into the back of the ship. Apparently, the <em>Meteor </em>had more than one.</p><p>“Surrender now, and we’ll let you live!” shouted one of the Raiders, who wore more lavishly decorated armor than all the others.</p><p>“Never!” shrieked a Fire Nation sailor, before getting his stomach carved out by a well-placed sword strike.</p><p>The lead Raider snorted. “Have it your way then. Benders, concentrate your fire on the savage!”</p><p>Concentrate their fire they did. If Katara hadn’t been one of the best waterbenders in the world, she would have been charred to a crisp immediately, but she was far, far too good for that to happen. Two tentacles fused into one and swept aside a trio of benders, while a fire blast was extinguished by another. But for every fireball stopped, two more took their place, and Katara soon found herself overwhelmed. Seeing an opening, the firebenders threw one last wave of flames at her defenses and boiled the water away. Utterly exhausted, she collapsed in a heap.</p><p>“Your waterbender is felled,” the lead Raider declared. “Surrender, and you will be allowed to live.”</p><p>“We’re not abandoning her to some <em>traitors</em>!” shouted Private Riza, charging the leader.</p><p>He just sighed and casually shot a fireball at her, which melted through her armor and burnt Riza’s skin away, deep enough to see bone. She wailed in pain and fell over. Some of her crewmates moved to help, but the leader shot them all threatening looks and they stepped back. The lead Raider said plainly, “Now, we will not hesitate to slaughter you all right where you stand. If you just let us take the girl, you will be allowed to live. Either way, the savage comes with us.”</p><p>Katara was vaguely aware that they were discussing her, but she was so tired from bending so much water that she was fading in and out of consciousness. She hardly struggled as her shoulders, wrists, knees, and ankles were bound.</p><p>“The choice is yours,” said the leader.</p><p>Captain Nizen looked at Katara, then at his crew, the war in his mind evident on his face. “I, uh…”</p><p>“We can’t,” whimpered Riza, clutching at her thigh.</p><p>The captain hung his head in shame. “Take the girl.”</p><p>The leader’s thin, cracked lips curled into a cruel smile. “This is the <em>wisest </em>decision, captain. I’m happy you could see that.”</p><p>“Just… just get the hell out of here!”</p><p>A Raider slung the half-conscious Katara over his shoulder and made his way to the boarding platform that had been erected between the <em>Tinder </em>and the <em>Meteor</em>. She fought to stay awake, to free herself, to summon the power of the oceans and use it to take her home, where the sea always led. But she couldn’t.</p><p>Another Raider derailed her train of thought. “Look, out there! Water Tribe skiffs!”</p><p>The leader spun and saw three ships of Northern Water Tribe origin pivoting in the waves and turning to go north, to the Pole. “Spirits be damned!” he shouted. “I want no witnesses! <em>Get those boats!</em>”</p><p>“No witnesses?” mumbled Captain Nizen. “What do you mean no—”</p><p>“No hard feelings, captain, but your boiler is fit to blow any second. Think of it as a parting gift from some of my engineers.”</p><p>“You lying son of a bitch,” the officer hissed.</p><p>“Toodle-oo!” the lead Raider chuckled, waving goodbye.</p><p>The Raiders walked back across the boarding platform, careful to keep a constant stream of fire behind them so they couldn’t be followed. Back on the <em>Meteor</em>, the bridge fell away, and the chain was retracted. The rebel ship lumbered off, steaming north. Behind them, the HMS <em>Tinder</em>’s boiler exploded in a flash of orange and a <em>BOOM </em>that threatened to blow out eardrums. The ship sank in minutes.</p><p>“What should we relay back to the Admiral?” a Raider grunt asked the leader, as Katara was unceremoniously dropped into a pile of ropes and canvas.</p><p>With a poisonous grin, he said, “Tell him we’ve found the last Southern waterbender. And tell him we’re coming home with it.”</p><p>Then the world went dark, and Katara was out.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Oncoming Storm</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>With his teeth chattering furiously, Sokka paddled the canoe faster. His romantic voyage through the ice floes with Suki had not gone as planned, and she currently sat in the back, wringing out her blue Water Tribe garments, as they navigated back to the village.</p><p>“I’m c-c-cold,” he sputtered.</p><p>“Sp-speak for yourself,” Suki shot back. “You’re not the o-one who fell in.”</p><p>“I think I’ve spent t-too much time away from home. I start shivering on chilly nights in Ba Sing Se, for Pete’s sake.”</p><p>“It must have been miserable growing up here. Kyoshi isn’t exactly <em>warm</em>, but we don’t have to worry about icebergs flattening our houses like you all do.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Sokka said wistfully, pausing his frantic paddling. “Isn’t it g-great?”</p><p>Suki rolled her eyes, though a smile tugged at her lips. “If you’re going to get all s-sappy right now, let me paddle.”</p><p>“I’ll be fine…” he sighed, though he put up no fight when the Kyoshi Warrior gently tugged the oar from his grasp.</p><p>He reclined slightly, admiring the natural beauty of the South Pole. The great walls of snow and ice that he’d seen since childhood were still there, though they’d changed shape and size so many times over the years that they were hardly recognizable. Being a part of Team Avatar had taken Sokka far and wide, but home would always be here. Unless Suki had her way; then home would be Kyoshi. A penguin-seal drifted past, honking and slapping its tail in the water, sending an unwanted splash right into the oblivious Sokka. Suki giggled as her fiancé sat up with a look of pure anger painted on his face. “Not <em>one </em>word,” he stated flatly.</p><p>“I didn’t say anything.”</p><p>“This is about where we found A-Aang, you know,” Sokka remarked, squeezing out his hair. “Katara got all angry with me and threw a hissy fit and blew up some big ch-ch-chunk of ice that he was inside.”</p><p>“Hmm, the way <em>she </em>tells it, you were being a bit of a sexist jerk when you made her throw that hissy fit,” said Suki.</p><p>Sokka struggled to find some witty retort, but he tripped over himself and wound up tongue-tied and embarrassed. “Alright, fine, I w-was a bit of a sexist jerk, but I was also fifteen. I’m a different man now,” he declared, puffing out his chest. “Besides, I got you, didn’t I? You’re like, the manliest girl I know.”</p><p>“What’s <em>that </em>supposed to mean?” she exploded.</p><p>What he’d just said registered in his head, and Sokka yelped, “No! What I meant was— you’re strong, and independent, and you can do all these really cool flips— and besides, you know that <em>Toph </em>is the manliest girl I know.”</p><p>Suki paused. “That’s true, that’s true,” she agreed.</p><p>The couple in their canoe drifted through the icy river, eventually foregoing all pretenses of a date and pulling out a second oar to get back to the village quicker. The sky soon darkened, as shadowed clouds covered the blinding sun and the wind picked up. “I think a storm’s coming!” Sokka yelled.</p><p>“We need to get inside!” pleaded Suki.</p><p>“The village is just around the bend!”</p><p>The canoe rammed into the ice and the two lovers hopped out, plodding through the knee-high snow in the direction of town. The village had grown a lot in the past five years, as the men returned from war and more igloos were constructed, but it still felt as cozy as before. Sokka admired the new guard tower his father had had built into the defensive wall. It was much taller and sturdier than the one he’d put up by hand all those years ago, though it was rather unnecessary, considering the war was in the past and the nearest other Southern Water Tribe settlement was much deeper into the tundra. Suddenly, the wind was joined by pelting snow, and Sokka and Suki had a blizzard on their hands. They made it to the front gates, which were unmanned. That confused Sokka—the gates were always guarded—but he shrugged it off as a precautionary measure taken by his father to ensure everyone stayed safe during the storm.</p><p>The couple decided to check in with Hakoda before making off to their igloo for the night, just to let him know they had gotten back okay. They veered off their normal path and wound up passing the stables. Katara and Aang had helped build them on their last visit to the South Pole, though Sokka couldn’t quite figure out why, considering there were no beasts of burden in the icy wastes. They’d sat unoccupied ever since. But now, they were full. A fuzzy white animal as large as a house lay there, curled in a ball, fast asleep. Sokka blinked and rubbed his eyes, making sure that the dark arrow on its head was actually there and he wasn’t suffering from snow blindness. “Appa?”</p><p>“What’s Appa doing here?” Suki wondered.</p><p>“I’m not sure, but wherever Appa goes, Aang goes too,” he stated.</p><p>“But weren’t he and Zuko going to Yu Dao?”</p><p>He looked at her, perplexed. “That’s what I thought.”</p><p>Sokka and Suki trudged through the empty town square, past the dead bonfire and stacks of freshly caught fish and ducked into the chieftain’s hut. Though it was the most spacious igloo in the entire South Pole, tonight it was cramped and stuffed with people elbow to elbow. Hakoda and Zuko stood in front of a table, pointing to locations on a map. Kanna was nearby, knitting something and muttering curses under her breath. Toph lay splayed out on the carpet, snoring loudly. Aang, removed from everyone else, sat in the rocking chair near the fireplace, his back to the rest of the room.</p><p>“The heck is everyone doing here?” the tribesman exclaimed.</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>Zuko looked up from the map and grimaced. He’d been dreading Sokka’s arrival ever since they got to the South Pole a few hours ago. Hakoda had no such reservations, though, and he swiftly moved across the room, pulling the young man into a warm hug.</p><p>“Uh, thanks, Dad,” Sokka managed, gasping for air. “I can’t breathe.”</p><p>Hakoda let his son go, and Zuko strode over to shake hands with Sokka, exchanging some pleasantries.</p><p>“You’re dressed awfully spiffily, Zuko,” Sokka remarked.</p><p>The Fire Lord looked down at himself and realized he still was wearing the ceremonial robes he’d pulled on before meeting with the Earth King in Yu Dao. A change of clothing had clearly never crossed his mind during he, Toph, and Aang’s mad dash south. They’d made the journey in just a few days, so there hadn’t been much time for anything but flying and sleeping and worrying. “Yeah, sorry, we’ve been busy,” he chuckled.</p><p>“When did you get in?”</p><p>Zuko squinted at the ceiling. “About… two hours ago? We just missed you. Are you sure that this building is going to hold under this storm? It sounds pretty bad out there, and this is just <em>snow</em>.”</p><p>Sokka laughed and ran a finger along one of the bricks of packed snow and ice that made up the wall, revealing solid stone underneath. “This place is a lot sturdier than it looks.”</p><p>Hakoda sighed, rubbing the back of his head. “Sokka… I have to tell you something. You’re not going to like it, but before you do anything, just know that it was a total surprise to all of us as well, and that we’re doing everything in our power to fix this.”</p><p>The young warrior’s trademark ear-to-ear grin faded. He grabbed Suki’s hand, and she squeezed him tight. “What do you mean? Did something happen?”</p><p>Zuko kicked Toph in the side and she awoke with a start. “Don’t sleep through this, it’s disrespectful,” he hissed.</p><p>The earthbender looked as though she would explode into a tirade unlike no other in retaliation for her rude awakening, but that sentiment quickly vanished from when she noticed Sokka was back. Shaking her head, she pulled herself up and crossed her arms, waiting.</p><p>“Sokka, son…  you know I love your sister and you very much, but something has happened,” Hakoda said wearily.</p><p>“What? What happened? Tell me, Dad!” he demanded.</p><p>“Well—”</p><p>“Katara’s been kidnapped.”</p><p>The entire room turned to Aang. He hadn’t said a word since they’d arrived and had been uncharacteristically silent over the course of the entire trip from Yu Dao to the South Pole, but the hollowness of his voice spoke volumes.</p><p>“Excuse me?” gaped Sokka.</p><p>“You heard me,” Aang droned. “Katara’s been kidnapped.”</p><p>“It happened on the trip up to the North Pole,” added Hakoda. “Master Pakku sent a letter recounting what the Water Tribe boats that went to pick her up from the Northern Outpost saw.”</p><p>“We also were sent word from the captain of the ship Katara was on—he was one of the few survivors. Apparently, it was the Southern Raiders who took her in an attack,” Zuko offered.</p><p>“So, she’s just gone. Wasn’t there anyone on that boat to <em>protect </em>her?” fumed Sokka.</p><p>Zuko frowned. “Of <em>course, </em>there were, I sent some of my best men—”</p><p>“I find it hard to believe your ‘best men’ could be so easily defeated by some schmucks who’ve been on the edge of the world for <em>years </em>now.”</p><p>“Are you saying you think I <em>didn’t </em>put my best men up to the task?”</p><p>“I’m saying the Fire Nation is <em>cheap</em>, and no amount of fresh paint is going to change the rotten foundations of the house!” he yelled, pointing a gloved finger at Zuko’s scarred face.</p><p>The Fire Lord threw his hands in the air. “<em>I’m </em>sorry, I don’t think <em>you’re </em>the one trying to run a country here!”</p><p>“Holy shit just shut up you two!” screeched Toph, shoving the two of them apart.</p><p>“What do you know, Toph? You hate your family!” Sokka roared. “You both hate your families!”</p><p>“Oh, so this is <em>my </em>fault now? What, just because I have human garbage in the form of parents, I can’t understand what it’s like to lose a loved one?” she volleyed back.</p><p>“You don’t need parents to know loss, Sokka,” said Aang, pinching the bridge of his nose as he rose from his seat.</p><p>Sokka’s face flared red. Suki tried to interject and stop him, but he pushed her away. “Mister Avatar how <em>honored </em>I am for you to enter the conversation! Where were <em>you </em>when Katara was kidnapped?”</p><p>“You know full well I was in Yu Dao,” the airbender spat. “And trust me, I <em>wish </em>I’d been on that ship, but I wasn’t! That’s all I’ve been able to think about this entire time!”</p><p>“Boo-hoo, don’t your Avatar powers come with omniscience or something? How could you let her get on that ship? Huh?”</p><p>“You’re out of line, Sokka!” interrupted Hakoda.</p><p>“Watch it, man,” Aang replied, gritting his teeth. “You need to calm down before you say something you’ll regret.”</p><p>“No, no! I’m not going to calm down! I want to know how my sister is dating the most powerful being on this <em>planet </em>and she still gets <em>kidnapped</em> by some <em>idiots </em>whose heads are so far up their asses that they can’t realize the war <em>ended </em>five years ago!”</p><p>“There was nothing I could do—”</p><p>“There is <em>always </em>something you could do!”</p><p>“I <em>love </em>her, Sokka. If there was <em>anything</em> I could have done, I would have done it.”</p><p>“Well then, it seems <em>clear</em> to me that you don’t love her as much as I do!” he screamed, jabbing Aang in the chest with his finger.</p><p>The igloo fell silent. Outside, the wind and snow howled, pressing down against the village. After a moment that lasted an eternity, Sokka sighed and said, “I’m sorry, that was—”</p><p>
  <em>WHAM.</em>
</p><p>Zuko stared at the scene unfolding before him in utter disbelief. Sokka stumbled back, his hands fumbling to cover his nostrils as scarlet blood shot everywhere. His nose was askew, smeared across his face, and he fell back over a chair, hitting the floor hard. Aang stood his ground, knuckles dripping with red ooze. His eyes, normally a calm gray, looked like thunderclouds. Zuko had watched Aang depose dictators, duel ancient spirits, and do away with entire fleets and armies like it was nothing. Never had he seen the Avatar look as threatening as he did now. Sokka was on his feet in a flash, shouting something in his rage, but Aang didn’t even so much as look at him. He just sent a blast of air into the tribesman’s gut that sent him flying into the wall and disappeared out the door with a swish of his robes.</p><p>“Spirits, Sokka, what the <em>hell</em> did you just do?” cried Zuko.</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>I could just leave.</em>
</p><p>Aang sat cross-legged in the stables next to Appa. His staff was balanced on his knees, his fingers absently fiddling with the switch that popped open a secret compartment stuffed with nuts and berries. He wasn’t really meditating. He was too angry for that. No, he was just thinking.</p><p>
  <em>I could just leave and go get her myself. What are the Southern Raiders really going to do when they face off against a fully-fledged Avatar?</em>
</p><p>At the back of his brain, the voice of Katara nagged, <em>That’s irresponsible, Aang.</em></p><p>He groaned. He knew he couldn’t solve this problem by his lonesome. Unfortunately, usually when he was faced with a problem as daunting as this, his first idea would be to ask Katara for help. That option being off the table meant he had no clue where to start, and he really didn’t want to go back into that igloo.</p><p>“Aang! Aang are you in here?”</p><p>The Avatar looked up to see Fire Lord Zuko out in the storm, a blue coat slung haphazardly over his ceremonial robes and a fireball held in his palm. “Yeah, I’m in here!” he called back.</p><p>The firebender slid inside, rubbing his hands together so quickly sparks flew. “Thank the Spirits, I was worried I was gonna become a Zuko-cicle out there.”</p><p>Aang laid back into Appa’s fur. “Did they send you out here to try to get me to apologize?”</p><p>“No,” groaned Zuko, sitting next to him, “Sokka’s the one who wants to apologize.”</p><p>Aang snorted. “On his own accord or did Toph have to twist his arm?”</p><p>“On his own accord,” the Fire Lord assured. “Look… I know it’s not really my place, considering my own sister is so… messed up, but I know Sokka was being an ass because he has nowhere to direct his anger but out.”</p><p>“How about <em>in</em>?”</p><p>“Sokka doesn’t work that way. He never shuts up. A big mouth and emotional distress mix to make one hell of a cocktail.”</p><p>Aang covered his face with his hands. “I know, I know. And I let myself get away from me.”</p><p>“I can’t believe you punched him,” remarked Zuko. “I thought you were a pacifist.”</p><p>“Evidently I’m not a very <em>good </em>one. I managed to find a way around killing one of the most fearsome war-criminals of this century, but I can’t hold back a punch? What is wrong with me?”</p><p>The older man shook his head. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. If someone said what Sokka had said about me and Mai, I probably would’ve done worse. But, still, you’ve gotta accept his apology. Katara wouldn’t want you two to fight like this.”</p><p>“Trust me, <em>I </em>don’t want to fight with him like this,” Aang lamented. “I feel awful.”</p><p>Zuko stood up and extended an arm to the airbender. “Then let’s go patch things up.”</p><p>Grunting, Aang took his hand and let himself be hoisted to his feet. “Let’s go.”</p><p>The storm was still nasty, but between Zuko’s firebending and Aang’s airbending they made it through without their limbs and digits turning purple. Aang brushed aside the curtain covering the doorway with his staff and stepped into the igloo, where Sokka stood in the center, a bloodied cloth clasped against his nose.</p><p>“Aang, I’m really sorry,” he honked, his voice muffled from the fabric. “I shouldn’t have said what I did, and I didn’t mean it. I was… I was mad, and it was unfair of me to be mad at anyone in here for what’s happened, you especially.”</p><p>“Thanks, Sokka,” the airbender responded.</p><p>“And hey, trust me when I say that there’s no one in the <em>world </em>my sister is safer or happier with than you.”</p><p>He grinned. “I’m glad you feel that way.”</p><p>“I am too. Now, friends again? We have a lot to do,” offered Sokka.</p><p>Aang nodded. “Let’s get to work.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A/N: It may seem a bit out of character for these two to be fighting, but I'm pretty sure this is exactly how something like this would happen. Sokka would be distraught if his sister was kidnapped and they had no idea where she was, and, given how extroverted and brash he is, he probably wouldn't internalize it very well. Meanwhile, Aang was ready to throw down when he ran into the sandbenders that stole Appa, so someone stealing away the love of his life would definitely put him on edge. Mix both, shake well, and you get a fight of epic proportions.</p><p>This chapter was also inspired by that one part of "The Southern Raiders" where Katara gets super pissed at Sokka and yells about how he clearly didn't love their mother the way she did. The short temper seems to run in the family.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. All Fired Up</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Fire Nation got hot in the dead of summer. Now that the war had ended, one of the country’s prime exports—tourism—was back up and running, and dozens of resorts had popped up along the archipelago that reached out across the sea, grasping for the hand of the Earth Kingdom. Zuko and Aang had shed their coverings and were sweating bullets. It had been in Shu Jing Village that they had dropped off Toph and Sokka, who were off on their own adventure of equal importance. The plan that had been put together in the South Pole was reliant upon these two quests going smoothly. For the Fire Lord and the Avatar, they were headed to the Capital City of the Fire Nation, having been joined en route by a familiar face…</p><p>“The Fire Lord and the Avatar!” Iroh chuckled merrily. “It sounds like a children’s storybook.”</p><p>“Well, this is anything but,” grumbled Aang, urging Appa to fly faster as the city came into view.</p><p>“I really appreciate you doing this for me again, Uncle,” Zuko said. “I know you’d rather be back making tea in Ba Sing Se—”</p><p>“Nonsense, nephew! I’m always honored to help. Plus, being regent for a few days or weeks will give me <em>plenty </em>of time to pound out the details on my tea holiday!”</p><p>“You’ll also probably have to do some actual business, you know,” he warned.</p><p>Iroh nodded. “Of course. I know the Earth King quite well—we met at a party after the war. He’s a fine man.”</p><p>“Is there anyone on this planet you <em>don’t </em>know?” mumbled Aang.</p><p>The former general stroked his beard. “Now that you mention it, there is one cabbage salesman I’ve run into quite often that never wants to talk to me. I haven’t the faintest idea why, though.”</p><p>The trio soon landed outside the Royal Palace, where Mai stood waiting. Zuko protested her being on her feet, but she was adamant she was alright and eventually he let up. Then came the meetings and the ceremonies, though the great show that was to be made of Zuko transferring the title and garb of Fire Lord to his uncle, ensuring that no one could mistake it for a coup d’état, would not come until the next day. Aang wasn’t really paying attention, so his recollection of all the details were fuzzy. He’d seen it all before, anyways. The entire time, only one thing was on his mind: Katara. He couldn’t get her out of his head, though it wasn’t like he was really trying. Pangs of sadness, desire, and jealousy overcame him whenever he saw Zuko and Mai together, but all he could do was swallow the pain and keep from screaming at the top of his lungs. Finally, by nightfall, Aang and Zuko were in the latter’s chambers, grabbing some of the Fire Lord’s belongings to bring along.</p><p>“These will definitely be useful,” the older man said, taking down his pair of swords from the wall and hooking the scabbard to his belt.</p><p>“Mhmm,” responded Aang.</p><p>“I’ll take along a warmer change of clothes too…”</p><p>“Mhmm.”</p><p>“And a mask if we need to hide our identities…”</p><p>“Mhmm.”</p><p>“Are you alright?”</p><p>“Mhmm.”</p><p>“How many fingers am I holding up?”</p><p>“Mhmm.”</p><p>“Aang, I have to tell you something… I’m in love with Suki.”</p><p>“Mhmm.”</p><p>Zuko grabbed his friend by the shoulders and shook him. “Back to reality, Aang. You’re spacing out.”</p><p>“Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking,” the airbender said sheepishly.</p><p>“Thinking about what?”</p><p>“…”</p><p>“It’s okay if you’re not comfortable with sharing,” the firebender added, turning to reexamine the bowels of his closet.</p><p>“…”</p><p>“…”</p><p>“…I was just thinking about the last time we were here, at the Royal Palace. That was the last time I saw Katara. The last ‘date’ we went on.”</p><p>Zuko frowned and put his arm on the Avatar’s shoulder. “Aang, don’t worry. We’re going to get her back, safe and sound.”</p><p>“For their sake, I hope she’s safe and sound.”</p><p>He eyed the boy with the arrow tattoos. “I don’t like it when you talk like that.”</p><p>Aang just shrugged.</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>The Fire Lord rose with the sun the next morning. The ceremony was at noon, but Zuko had six days’ worth of work to get done in the six hours before then. He was careful not to wake his wife as he slunk off to bathe and get dressed, a process that would have taken half the time it did if he hadn’t been so stubborn and refused all help from servants and waitstaff. Zuko took his breakfast at his desk, where he gobbled down a plate of scrambled eggs and assorted fruits, pausing only to pore over legal documents or pour down a sip of orange juice. There was a lot of paperwork that went into running a great and powerful nation, and even more when one was preparing to leave for a while. Most of the decrees he skimmed and signed, but the sheet of parchment at the bottom of the stack stopped him in his tracks. It was the request he’d lodged the instant he heard of Katara’s kidnapping, calling for the armed forces to begin preparing a strike team—something that would be of use during the inevitable clash with the Southern Raiders. Zuko read it in full, defacing it with his signature once finished. He moved to put it on the outgoing stack of completed papers… but then stopped. He looked back down at it, read it once again, and then stowed it in the folds of his robes. <em>Later,</em> he thought.</p><p>Finished with his work, Zuko was swept up in the kerfuffle surrounding the Ceremony of Transition. Though an ancient tradition, Fire Lord Sozin had effectively forced the government to forget it ever existed in his successful attempts to consolidate power in the lead-up to the Hundred Year War. It wasn’t until Zuko went digging around in the newly unsealed Royal Archives that the process of temporarily installing a regent while the Fire Lord was incapable of ruling saw the light of day. What made the ceremony dangerous enough to be wiped from the lawbooks was that, during the handing off of the crown, momentarily there was <em>no </em>Fire Lord. Sozin hadn’t enjoyed that idea, and so he tried to do away with it forever. It made sense, then, that Zuko used it <em>sparingly</em>, having only ever called upon his Uncle Iroh to take the throne once in his reign, when the firebender had rejoined Team Avatar to find his mother. Afterward, seeing the sparkle of adventure in his eyes, Mai had made him promise he would only use it under extraordinary circumstances. The kidnapping of one of their closest friends, they had decided, fell under that classification. Hopefully, this would all be wrapped up within the week. Zuko had been stuck with National Tea Appreciation Day for four years now, and he didn’t want to come back to an international pai sho tournament happening in the Throne Room.</p><p>The firebender maneuvered through his palace to the courtyard’s entrance. Given the gravity of the situation, Zuko and Iroh had agreed to forego most of the ceremonial aspects of the process and instead simply transfer the headpiece of the Fire Lord from one man to the other. Already late, he swept past a helpful attendant and stepped out into the open, in between his uncle and his wife, while Aang leaned against a pillar further away. The head sage from Roku’s new temple in the city addressed the crowd, which, though summoned at the last minute, was still impressive.</p><p>“What did I miss?” he whispered.</p><p>“Just the whole thing,” Mai responded. “So, nothing important.”</p><p>“Shoot!” Zuko hissed, smacking his forehead.</p><p>“Oh, it’s not like you missed anything. This geezer has been talking about nothing for at least twenty minutes.”</p><p>“...and so, it brings me great pleasure to welcome Fire Lord Zuko and the honorable General Iroh before you today!” the sage announced to thunderous applause.</p><p>The two men stepped forward, their best smiles plastered over their faces as they waved to the crowd.</p><p>“Repeat after me, please!” the sage ordered. “I, Zuko, son of Ozai…”</p><p>“I, Zuko, son of Ozai…” his father’s name was mangled in his throat.</p><p>“Do solemnly and sincerely…”</p><p>“Do solemnly and sincerely…”</p><p>“Renounce my powers as Fire Lord for a period indeterminate…”</p><p>“Renounce my powers as Fire Lord for a period indeterminate…”</p><p>“And transfer these powers to Iroh, son of Azulon, should he consent.”</p><p>“And transfer these powers to Iroh, son of Azulon, should he consent.”</p><p>“The headpiece, Sir Zuko,” the sage demanded.</p><p>“Right,” he mumbled, pulling it from his hair and setting it on an open palm. As the entire Fire Nation watched, he held the ornament out, waiting for Iroh to take it…</p><p>“<em>FOR THE PHOENIX KING!</em>”</p><p>The serious and quiet tone of the ceremony was shattered when a man in a black suit with a headwrap that resembled a sea raven came flying over the palace roof, his hands ablaze. Instantly, Zuko dropped the crown and leapt back to shield Mai as the berserker slammed into the ground where he had stood. The warrior shot a column of fire towards Iroh and the crowd, which the older man deflected. As the fire spiraled away harmlessly, several cloaked figures pushed their way to the front of the mob of onlookers, revealing themselves to be…</p><p>“<em>The Southern Raiders</em>,” Zuko spat. “Iroh! Get Mai to safety! Aang and I can hold these traitors off!”</p><p>The old general nodded, dashing off to help the Queen. Meanwhile, much of the Fire Lord’s Royal Guard ushered the panicked crowd away. Zuko silently cursed himself for letting the Kyoshi Warriors return home when he left for Yu Dao. He needed them now more than ever.</p><p>Aang immediately leapt into action, pulling from all four elements. A boulder hit one Raider in the shoulder, while a miniature tornado ripped across the courtyard, carrying another away. He attempted to bend the water in the reflection pools flanking the marble staircase leading up to the palace, but the liquid refused to budge. Out of evasive options, the Avatar hit the chest of an attacker with a red-hot palm, burning through the armor and searing his skin. Zuko winced as the Raider screamed, knowing full well how painful an experience that was.</p><p>“Go to the captain at the top of the stairs!” Iroh gruffly told Mai, turning back to help his nephew.</p><p>The Fire Lord, the Avatar, and the Dragon of the West were united in battle at last. Unfortunately, the rush of a new ally didn’t last long, because just as Zuko thought the upper hand was within their grasp…</p><p>“Surrender now or the Queen will burn!” roared the guardsman at the top of the stairs. He held Mai, struggling, in a locked grip, one arm around her neck, and the other hand pressed against her swollen belly. Zuko’s breath hitched as his world collapsed around him in a single moment. He howled for Iroh and Aang to stop, and they did. “Good boy…” the guard said, smirking under his helmet.</p><p>“This is just like the Dai Li all over again…” grumbled the Avatar as he reluctantly raised his hands over his head.</p><p>“So, the Royal Guard is not loyal to the Fire Lord?” Zuko remarked as the trio were forcibly shoved to their knees.</p><p>“We are loyal to the Phoenix King,” drawled the Captain of the Royal Guard. “And we are loyal to those who support him.”</p><p>“<em>The enemy of my enemy is my friend</em>. Sounds like some of that philosophy shit this old man won’t stop spewing,” chuckled one of the Raiders as he smacked Iroh upside the head.</p><p>“Bind the prisoners,” the captain commanded, ignoring the blow.</p><p>Two figures, a Raider and a guardsman, stepped forward and positioned themselves behind the three squirming heroes. With the snap of their fingers, cords of lightning lashed out and wrapped around the prisoners’ wrists and ankles. They didn’t touch the skin, but hovered just above it, periodically nipping at the flesh with sharp, painful stings. Any sudden movement would surely lead to their violent electrocutions.</p><p>“What’s your plan here? Depose Zuko, kill all of us, and then what? You’re back at square one again,” Aang surmised.</p><p>The captain laughed coldly. “Now, now, where would the fun in revealing our strategy early be? I know Iroh, pai sho master that he is, understands not revealing your hand.”</p><p>“And to think I played that most special game with <em>you</em>!” roared the general. “With a traitor!”</p><p>“Oh, don’t get your diaper in a twist, old man. The Avatar will now stand and follow me to the edge of the city. The firebenders will remain here, until I can return and <em>deal with them</em>,” the captain said with a perverse smile.</p><p>Aang, his head hung in shame, was thrown to his feet and pushed up the steps. Just as he stumbled up the first marble slab, the minds of Zuko and Iroh seemed to meld together. In an unrehearsed but nevertheless concerted motion, they both grabbed at the rings of electricity surrounding their wrists. For any normal bender, this would have been the worst possible option, but the Fire Lord and the Dragon of the West were anything <em>but </em>normal. The electricity stayed caught in their fists as they focused, absorbing the lightning around their ankles as well. They let the intense energy flow through them, up their left arms, under their hearts, through their core, and out their raised right arms, striking like a viper in the direction of the Captain of the Royal Guard. Though normally chaotic, this lightning was disciplined, and it moved with startling accuracy, zapping the traitor with just enough power to send a shock through his nervous system and cause him to fall limp to the floor.</p><p>Then came the chaos. Aang, his wrists still bound behind his back, leaped around like a rabbit with wings, trying his best to bend using his feet. Mai, in no condition to be fighting, ran off as fast as she could into the depths of the palace. Sensing her safety, Zuko unleashed his full power side-by-side with Iroh, breathing a great plume of fire like that from the throat of a dragon. Some of the Raiders and guardsmen fled at this display, while others were too busy whimpering over their third-degree burns covering their limbs and torsos and faces to even try to run. In just a few minutes, the entire baker’s dozen of traitors and raiders had been dealt with one way or the other.</p><p>“That was amazing,” gasped Aang in awe, rubbing his wrists as Zuko bent the lightning bindings away.</p><p>“That was sloppy, and that was dangerous,” the firebender protested. “If they’d killed me and Iroh… it could have meant full-blown civil war.”</p><p>The general nodded, his hand on Zuko’s shoulder. “Indeed, nephew, but the important thing is that we are all alive and well. You must go tend to your wife. Let Aang and I clean up.”</p><p>“A-Alright, I’ll—wait, what about the ceremony?”</p><p>Aang stepped forward. “I’ll be your audience and your sage. There’s no one better to witness such an important proceeding than the Avatar.”</p><p>“I suppose…” Zuko hummed.</p><p>Iroh picked up the partially melted headpiece from the pavement. It wasn’t severely damaged, but it had still not escaped the appetite of a fireball unscathed. From behind a pillar, the head sage and his colleagues appeared, taking over for Aang and coaching Iroh and Zuko through the rest of the ceremony, eventually ending in the old general attaching the headpiece. With credible witnesses, everything was in order, and <em>Sir </em>Zuko—a purely honorary title—raced to find Mai and probably a general. Who knew how deep the rot went in the foundations of the Fire Nation?</p><p>As the firebender ran, he heard a snippet of conversation between his uncle and the Avatar, one lone sentence that he couldn’t afford to wait and hear the answer to.</p><p>“Fire Lord Iroh?” asked Aang innocently. “I was wondering… would you teach me how to bend lightning?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A/N: So... I should probably bring up the elephant in the room: the comics. I'm unsure of how they really fit in here. The current rule of thumb I'm running with is that things are canon until proven not. "The Promise" is definitely canon, the rest is still up in the air. I'm not exactly happy with a bunch of things that happened in the comics, most notably Zuko and Mai breaking up for... literally no reason. Their breakup happened in one panel over a very stupid thing they should have been able to work out (Zuko is the Fire Lord, obviously there are going to be secrets he can't share!). So, in my own headcanon, that wasn't really a permanent thing, and they got back together a little ways down the road, like they always do.</p><p>The other thing is the New Ozai Society and the events surrounding it. I'm not going to bring it into this story in any notable way, but rather I'm considering it to be one of many secret societies and groups that popped up around the Fire Nation following Zuko's coup. The fall of the Fire Nation in Avatar happened in such a manner that there's going to be a lot of organizations of that type, considering that a cult of personality and deification of the Fire Lord as extreme as Imperial Japan's worshipping of the Emperor before and during World War II reigned supreme in the Fire Nation for a century, before being violently toppled by a banished outsider working with people who spent the last hundred years hoping to obliterate their homeland. This isn't a recipe for disaster—this is a recipe for catastrophe.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. The Two Masters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was as though the battle had happened yesterday.</p><p>That’s all Sokka could think about as he drank in the somber, quiet wreckage of Wulong Forest. Once upon a time, or so he had been told, the forest and the rock formations adjacent to it had been magnificent, a natural wonder on the same level of grandeur as the Great Divide or the Western Air Temple. It had been like that since the creation of the world, up until five years ago, when Avatar Aang and Phoenix King Ozai clashed at that very spot. The climactic battle had not been kind on the landscape. Sokka winced as he saw some of the pillars of stone had crumbled to pieces or swayed in the wind, ready to join their siblings in the rock pile below. “It’s beautiful,” he gasped in awe as the Fire Nation sailboat ran aground in the sand. “Tragically beautiful, but… still beautiful, isn’t it?”</p><p>“Yeah, Sokka,” Toph deadpanned, her arms crossed. “It’s beautiful.”</p><p>“...”</p><p>“...”</p><p>“You’re insufferable, you know.”</p><p>“Maybe if they sent me with someone who could remember I’m <em>blind</em>,” she replied, hopping over the side and splashing into the ankle-deep water, “I wouldn’t be so bad. I should have taken Suki with me.”</p><p>“What do you mean, ‘taken Suki with <em>you</em>’? This whole operation was <em>my</em> idea,” shot back Sokka as he joined her in wading to shore.</p><p>“Why didn’t she come, anyway? Finally scare her off? You two haven’t stopped slobbering all over each other like a couple polar bear dogs since you got engaged a few months ago.”</p><p>“Five months ago,” the tribesman corrected. “And she decided to stay on her own accord. She hasn’t had a lot of time to be in the South Pole without me, and I really want her to like it there, so…”</p><p>“So, having her there with no one but your grandmother and dad and the snow to talk to is what you decided would get her to like the place? I hate to break it to ya, pal, but you’re moving to Kyoshi whether you like it or not,” said Toph.</p><p>As the Stone Fingers loomed closer, the two most talkative members of Team Avatar independently fell silent. The old battlefield was graced with the same type of reverent quiet as a library. Sokka ran a hand along one of the stone cylinders as they walked deeper into the unliving jungle. Coming back to where it had all ended, after all those years of peace, made Sokka feel as though he was digging around in the dustbin of history.</p><p>“I feel old,” he said suddenly.</p><p>“Like you’re a relic of the past? I feel that too, sometimes,” Toph responded. “It’s like everyone’s waiting for us to die so they can put up big statues in our honor.”</p><p>“A statue would be nice,” Sokka sighed dreamily.</p><p>“We ended a hundred years of war. We’re all getting statues.”</p><p>The conversation died in their throats as the pair traversed further, now wildly off-track from their intended goal but nevertheless carrying on. They reached a clearing in the fingers, where a circle of stone had been melted into now-hardened sludge. At the base of one of the pillars at the edge of the circle were the remains of a spherical rock shelter—the makeshift ball Aang had hidden inside to escape Ozai. The front half had been blown clean off, the edges still showing where they’d been seared with the heat of a comet.</p><p>“This was the epicenter,” observed Sokka, pointing at the shelter, then following a line to the left. “Meaning that the airships were over that part of the forest.”</p><p>“What part of the forest?”</p><p>“The part to our left,” he clarified.</p><p>The duo continued to the edge of the forest. It was a pleasant place, with more than enough sunlight leaking through the leaves to illuminate the world beneath the branches. Squirrels and birds frolicked, and though the two older teens were determined and serious, they couldn’t help but crack a smile. It was just like old times.</p><p>Toph abruptly skidded to a stop. “I can feel it!”</p><p>Sokka whirled to face her. “You can ? Are you sure?”</p><p>Readjusting her bracelet made of meteorite, the earthbender answered, “Positive.”</p><p>Toph led the way with purpose. Even though she was blind, Sokka sometimes felt like she could see better than him, as she expertly navigated the twisting, intertwining roots leaping in and out of the forest floor. The foliage soon thickened, and the light began to fade, causing the warrior to pull out his trusty boomerang in order to quell his fears. Every so often the earthbender would hold up a palm, signaling a stop, then pivot and keep on going. Twice Sokka thought he saw a jaguar bear stalking them, and though it turned out to just be his mind playing tricks on him, he was not assuaged when he found the fresh pawprint of a saber-tooth moose lion in the mud.</p><p>“Is it close by?” he questioned, hugging his boomerang tightly.</p><p>Toph simply nodded. As she concentrated, the meteorite on her wrist began to hum, achieving a frequency that Toph’s excellent ears could pick up on. Then the woods came to a sudden end as a clearing opened. Sokka’s eyes widened in wonder and joy as he sprinted past the girl and over to the boulder at the middle of the clearing, where, embedded halfway into the rock, was…</p><p>“Space sword!” he cheered, throwing his arms around the stone.</p><p>The elegant black blade shone just as brightly as the day it had been forged from that meteorite, glinting in a stray sunbeam. Despite having spent five long years exposed to the elements, there was no rust, no damage at all, to the weapon, a testament to the material it had been crafted from. Sokka eagerly climbed atop the boulder and pulled the sword free, thrusting it into the air, catching the light and displaying it in its full glory.</p><p>“Well, that was easy,” chirped Toph. “No monsters, no magic spirits, no angry benders, no mercenaries, no natural disasters? Nothing trying to maim or kill us? Are we even a part of Team Avatar anymore?”</p><p>Sokka was too busy dancing around with his sword to hear her, making strange faces and spinning like a ballerina.</p><p>The earthbender tapped her foot. “Can we go now? Before the ground opens up to swallow us whole?”</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>Toph groaned loudly as she dangled her head off the edge of the stone balcony. It had been three days since she and Sokka had found his space sword in Wulong Forest, and three days since they had returned to Shu Jing Village. She had been hoping for Aang and Zuko’s speedy return, but it had quickly become apparent they would not be graced with the presence of the Avatar and the Fire Lord for a while. Sokka had taken it upon himself to reach out to his old teacher and current pen pal, Master Piandao, and managed to persuade the swordsman to give the two of them a place to stay while they awaited the rest of their team. Since then, it had been nothing but endless sparring matches between the two. Toph understood Sokka needed somewhere to channel his emotions, and it was great that he was getting practice in again, but…</p><p>She. Was. <em>Bored</em>.</p><p>Her moans and grumblings elicited no response from the dueling partners. She could feel the reverberations of their fancy footwork through the ground, Piandao’s graceful movements juxtaposed with Sokka’s choppier, more erratic motions. In his defense, he hadn’t practiced with the space sword in a while, and he was still holding his own with the old master. It’s just that, well, Piandao was more experienced. Toph blew a lock of what she had been told was dark hair off her face, and decided that if she couldn’t entertain herself, she’d let the two boys with blades do it for her. She strained her ears and lowered her fingertips to the floor.</p><p>Sokka and Piandao, Toph discovered, moved with more speed and purpose than she had ever observed in a bender. That made sense, she supposed. Chucking rocks and shooting big gusts of wind, fire, and water wasn’t exactly a precise business. But swordplay required accuracy, a deep-seated exactness not many people had. She felt herself gasp as Piandao’s sword clanged against Sokka’s, and the younger man grunted as he braced himself. Toph could <em>feel</em> the metal biting into metal. Then there was the swish of fabric and the slide of shoes against the arena floor, and suddenly Sokka was the one in control. Maybe she’d underestimated him. Maybe <em>he </em>was better than Piandao.</p><p>
  <em>Clang! Shwift. Woosh. Ka-thunka.</em>
</p><p>“Very <em>good</em>, Sokka!” the old master declared. “But let’s see how you handle <em>this</em>.”</p><p>
  <em>Shhiing! Squeak. Ba-taang! Wham!</em>
</p><p>There was a sudden splash as someone fell into the water. An instant later, a sword clattered to the ground. A sword with an <em>iron </em>blade.</p><p>“Not bad,” the tribesman retorted, “for an <em>old man</em>.”</p><p>Piandao’s laughter filled the courtyard, and Toph let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding in. Sokka pulled him up, and he said, “Well, you’re certainly better than when I trained you. <em>Much </em>better.”</p><p>“I’ve been working on a few techniques with my fiancée,” Sokka replied, swiping at the air to celebrate his impressive tour de force. “She’s a Kyoshi Warrior.”</p><p>“That would explain your unpredictability. Kyoshi Warriors would make fine assassins if they weren’t so disciplined.”</p><p>The Water Tribesman paused. “...Thank you?”</p><p>Toph sighed. Things had <em>just </em>started getting interesting, she mused, before an idea struck her like lightning from the heavens. The earthbender rolled off the balcony and landed on her feet at the edge of the arena below, announcing, “Hey you two, playtime’s over! Now’s your chance to practice against a <em>real </em>threat.”</p><p>Master Piandao turned to face her. “Who are you to be so bold as to interrupt an apprentice and his master?”</p><p>She smiled cockily. “I’m Toph Beifong, and I’m the greatest earthbender of all time!”</p><p>Piandao said nothing, confused, but Sokka whispered to him, “She’s the person who invented metalbending.”</p><p>The swordsman gasped in recognition, “Ahh, another master in our midst!”</p><p>Toph blew a raspberry in Sokka’s general direction. “See? I’m a <em>master</em>.”</p><p>“Oh, it’s not as though Sokka is very far off from mastery of the blade,” Piandao interjected. “Though, he’d need to <em>prove </em>his skill for me to declare him my equal.”</p><p>“Your… equal?” the tribesman gaped.</p><p>He nodded. “Indeed. I have never seen such raw talent and drive to improve. Why, you’ve picked up right where you left off with a weapon you hadn’t seen in half a decade! Even Zuko was not as impressive. And clearly, besting me is no great feat for you. No, you need just one last test, and then I shall see fit to name you master.”</p><p>“He can fight <em>me</em>!” shouted Toph excitedly.</p><p>She could have sworn Piandao was smirking as he said, “Yes, that seems to be a fair deal.”</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>Sokka had, in just a few minutes, experienced a flurry of emotions, first humility, then pride, then happiness. Now, he was facing a whole new feeling: dread. The type of dread that rips out your heart, shoves it inside your stomach, and shakes them both up until they explode. His mouth tried to operate, but the last two brain cells in his head couldn’t string together enough words to speak. “But she’s the greatest earthbender of all time! I’m not joking, she literally is!” he finally managed to get out.</p><p>Toph cracked her neck. “You’re the one who threw a punch at the Avatar. Are you afraid a <em>little</em> <em>girl </em>is gonna whip your butt?”</p><p>“I— But, but… No! I’m not worried about a little girl whipping my butt! I’m worried about a tall, strong girl chewing me up and spitting me out! I’ve seen you ‘practice’ with Aang. He’s so bruised after it he’s purple!”</p><p>“Sokka,” Master Piandao sternly began, “this is your final test. I would not have assigned it to you if I did not think you could overcome it. I know you have faced benders of all types in your travels. You know as well as I do that you must be prepared for anything, because anything can happen.”</p><p>The young swordsman sighed deeply. “I know. Come on, Toph, let’s do this thing.”</p><p>A short while later, everyone was in position. Master Piandao and his trusted butler, Fat, would be watching from the sidelines, making sure no one stepped out of the ring and no foul play was involved. Sokka and Toph, meanwhile, faced down each other from either end of the circle. Fat crashed a mallet into a gong, signaling the start of the match.</p><p>“Are you ready to go home, waterboy?” the earthbender asked, picking something from under her fingernail.</p><p>Sokka wrinkled his nose and raised a brow. “What? No, I thought we were—”</p><p>“Good!” she exclaimed, interrupting. “Because I bought you a one-way ticket to <em>POUND TOWN</em>!”</p><p>Toph slammed her foot into the ground and a trifecta of stone boxes ripped from the arena shot into orbit around her. She sprinted forward and threw out her arm, hurling the rocks toward Sokka. His eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and he limboed back, the rubble just barely missing his nose. Off-kilter from Toph’s unfiltered aggression, the swordsman forgot to swing when she came tumbling by, instead opting to roll away. The bender stopped on a dime and spun to face him. Sokka couldn’t help but notice how much more terrifying Toph had become over the years. She had been a little monster when he’d met her, but in the years since she’d grown like a weed into a cunning, sly, and powerful young woman. Not missing a beat, she punched the ground and dislodged a chunk, which she split into three smaller pieces and sent towards Sokka at breakneck speeds.</p><p>“Holy crap, Toph, are you trying to <em>actually </em>kill me?” he shrieked, deflecting the projectiles with his sword.</p><p>“Adrenaline is the spice of life!” she cackled.</p><p>“That’s ‘variety’!”</p><p>As Toph began another assault, Sokka realized he needed to get a grip. He saw Master Piandao watching pensively, dissecting his every move against the Blind Bandit. <em>Focus</em>, he told himself. <em>Focus, focus, focus. I need to focus.</em></p><p>Taking a deep breath, Sokka closed his eyes and held his blade before him. He may not have been able to sense seismic activity through the earth like Toph, but a certain ability to predict and react was needed to be handy with a sword. His eyes flashed open, and he saw her sprinting towards him again. Sokka took one step to the side and entirely evaded her, rocks and all. He spun to shout some smug remark, only to be nailed in the gut by a boulder, knocking him to the ground.</p><p>“<em>I’m bliiiind</em>,” she taunted.</p><p>Sokka flipped back up, breathing hard. Clearly, his usual tactics for handling Piandao wouldn’t work with Toph. He’d have to dig deeper. How had Aang beaten her in that pro-bending match where they’d met? He’d flown and airbended. <em>Well, that’s off the table</em>, surmised the tribesman. Then he thought about it a little harder. <em>Aang didn’t just fly, he evaded her. He became Twinkletoes because his toes never touched the ground. </em>Things fell in place. Sokka knew exactly what to do and how to do it. Repeated over and over again in his mind was a long-forgotten pillar of Water Tribe warfare his father had taught him long ago: <em>Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.</em></p><p>The swordsman stepped lightly. If Toph “saw” by sensing vibrations, well, he’d make her work for that. Sokka moved like a gentle breeze, suddenly imbibed with more grace and poise than he had ever had in his life. Usually, he could be a klutz, but when a blade was in his hand, he became a whole other person. Toph’s next round was easily dodged as he rose onto his toes, his movements growing more careful as he minimized the noise from his footsteps. She was visibly confused, struggling to pick up where her dueling partner had gone. “Sokka, what the hell are you doing?”</p><p>Knowing better than to speak and give his position away, the swordsman continued his strange, chaotic tango, keeping his footing as he stepped in one direction, then another, then another with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Toph spun in circles, trying to detect him, but she was getting confused. Was that his heartbeat or Piandao’s or Fat’s? Sokka was suddenly by her side, and he smacked her across the cheek with the flat of his blade. Shouting, Toph tottered away, but in hitting her Sokka had revealed his position. The earthbender wrenched a hunk of plaster and brick out of the wall nearby—Piandao yelped, “My house!”—and flung it at her opponent, but Sokka just cleaved the mass in two with his space sword.</p><p>“It seems to me like the Blind Bandit is getting this match stolen right out from under her!” he cheered.</p><p>Roaring, Toph pulled the gong from its strings with her metalbending and launched it at the tribesman, who chopped that up too. She hocked more rocks at him, but he was too fast and too quiet to pin down, sending her into a confused rage. Then Sokka appeared before her, and she had just enough time to raise her hand and stop his sword’s downward blow with her bending. The blade hovered there, Toph and Sokka fighting for dominance, mastery of the elements versus mastery of muscles, until he lunged with a foot and swept her legs out from under her. With a flourish, Sokka twirled his sword and pointed the tip down to Toph’s neck, barely an inch away from quivering flesh.</p><p>“I win,” he drawled.</p><p>Her nostrils flared and her cheeks turned crimson, but she swallowed her anger and simply replied, “You win. Now get that thing away from me before you accidentally decapitate me.”</p><p>“Really?” he asked incredulously. “You—you’re giving up? You’re conceding? Just like that?”</p><p>“I like my head where it is currently, thanks.”</p><p>Sokka stepped back and did a little dance, shouting at the top of his lungs, “I win! I win! Wahoo!”</p><p>Master Piandao cleared his throat, and he stopped celebrating immediately. Piandao beckoned for him, and Sokka came forward, kneeling at his master’s feet and staring down into the dirt. The teacher unsheathed his own blade, examining it in the sun for a moment before stating, “That was a most impressive display, my apprentice.”</p><p>The boy from the Water Tribe bowed his head lower. “Thank you, master.”</p><p>“I suppose others will be saying that to you from now on,” Piandao remarked, bringing his weapon down to tap Sokka gently on the shoulders. “Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, I pronounce you to be a master of the blade, a warrior who fights not for war, but for peace. A defender not of his own interest, but of the world’s. Remember these words. Heed them. Only then may you truly become what we all strive to be: a hero.”</p><p>He nodded, rising, and said, “I will, Master Piandao.”</p><p>“It’s a shame I won’t be able to call you my apprentice anymore,” he considered.</p><p>“I may not be your apprentice anymore, but I will always be your student.”</p><p>The teacher smiled. “Of course, <em>Master </em>Sokka. Oh, and, if I may—I’d recommend it best to not lord this over Zuko too much.”</p><p>“Zuko isn’t a master?”</p><p>Piandao shook his head. “He was too impatient and thought himself better than he truly was, at least back then. And then he was banished, and our lessons became few and far between. Eventually, he ran off on his grand quest to capture the Avatar before I had a chance to give him his final test.”</p><p>“Ah.”</p><p>“If I may ask, Sokka… what brought you two to my village after all this time? You were dropped off by the Avatar and the Fire Lord, and they left in company of the Dragon of the West. Those three together cannot mean good news.”</p><p>The tribesman hung his head, reality hitting him like a splash of ice water.</p><p>Piandao laid a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t mean to pry. If you don’t feel comfortable discussing this, then—”</p><p>“No, no, it’s…” Sokka choked, “It’s my sister. She was kidnapped by the Southern Raiders—they’re these Fire Nation insurgents who can’t believe the war is over. My friends and I are going out searching for them. For <em>her</em>.”</p><p>“I see. Well, just know that if you ever need my blade or my advice, I will not hesitate to be at your side.”</p><p>Sokka nodded. “Sure.”</p><p>The rest of the afternoon went by quickly, and soon Toph and the others had retreated inside the castle, leaving Sokka alone outside. He sat at the edge of the cliff, his legs dangling out into nothingness. The sun was setting over the beautiful valley below, turning the lazy river cutting through the landscape a brilliant orange. Sokka was pondering something deeply, his hand propping up his cheek. Then Toph shattered his concentration, yelling, “Hey, Twinkletoes Junior! Twinkletoes Senior and Mister Mopey are here! We’ve gotta go!”</p><p>“Coming!” shouted Sokka in reply, scrambling to collect his sword and boomerang and dashing away up the stairs. He wiped a lone teardrop from his eye, casting it aside with a casual flick. The moral quandaries could wait. He had a sister to save.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>SPACE SWORD RETURNS!</p><p>Yeah really, why did that never happen in canon? Sokka really gets shafted in The Legend of Korra (or so I've been told—I'm still yet to watch LOK), and in the comics he just kind of turns into a caricature of himself, losing most of his tactician skills he'd spent the entire show building up and instead becoming a faucet for bad jokes (well, jokes worse than what Sokka tells usually). I feel like retrieving the epic sword he just forged and trained endlessly with would be a top priority of his, especially when you're best friends with a girl who can sense metal.</p><p>Apologies for my update schedule, which is currently nonexistent. My given amount of free time per week fluctuates drastically because school is a bitch.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Hell or High Water</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Katara first woke up, she was on a ship. The metal room she was in was shrouded in shadow, but she could feel the waves rocking the vessel. Her body was tied up, making it hard to move, and her mouth was gagged with some dirty rag. She only held consciousness for a few seconds before the darkness consumed her.</p><p>When Katara woke up for the second time, she was being carried through a cave. She let out a small groan, trying to collect her thoughts. It was hard to see straight. Everything was fuzzy. Where was she? The last thing she could remember was… a boat? Where was Aang? Why was she here all alone? Why was she tied up? Who had tied her up? Where was Aang?</p><p>"Careful with her," she heard a gruff voice say. "She's damaged goods, but <em>important </em>goods."</p><p>She tried to say something, but the words wouldn't come out, as she slipped away again…</p><p>When Katara woke up for the third time, she scraped together enough resolve to <em>stay</em> up. Blinking open bleary eyes, she was perplexed as to why she felt like she was simultaneously standing and falling over, until she noticed the chains. Her hands and forearms had shoved into metal sleeves, making anything but the slightest of movements with her fingers impossible. Thick iron chains were attached to the end, leading to twin pillars shooting out from the steel floor. Her ankles had been bolted down as well, though the snares keeping them in place were far less heavy duty. Katara was leaning forward, letting gravity take her, but the chains refused to let her fall. She tried to tug on her bindings as her memory came back to her.</p><p><em>The Southern Raiders are here!</em> her inner voice screamed. <em>They blew up the ship, and, and… where did they take me?</em></p><p>"She's awake!" announced a deep voice.</p><p>"What?" Katara babbled to no one in particular.</p><p>"I'll handle this," said another voice firmly. "No one else in or out, got that?"</p><p>"Yes, sir!"</p><p>The solid door across from Katara heaved open with an almighty squeal of unoiled hinges, and a figure emerged. It was a man clad in a modified Fire Navy officer's war uniform, with various Raider flairs decorating it alongside a symbol she had never seen before, the head of a roaring lion with fire for a mane.</p><p>"Hello, <em>savage</em>," the officer spat, walking closer to her. "Finally joining us in the land of the living?"</p><p>"Wh-where am I?" coughed Katara.</p><p>"I'm not at liberty to say."</p><p>"Why am I here? What do you want from me?"</p><p>The Raider grinned. "Young lady, we want <em>nothing </em>from you but your presence."</p><p>"My… presence?"</p><p>"How <em>else </em>would we draw in the Avatar and the rest of his idiotic friends at their weakest?"</p><p>She grimaced. "You don't know what you're doing."</p><p>"We know <em>exactly </em>what we're doing."</p><p>"I… who are you?"</p><p>The Raider paused, then announced, “Of course, where are my manners? My name is General Luzon of the Southern Raiders. I lead the Simha Division.”</p><p>“Never heard of it,” Katara replied.</p><p>“I suppose that would be because you and your friends never saw the <em>real </em>war during your gallivanting. We were once part of the Fire Nation Army, and we were the most fearsome division on the front lines. <em>We </em>were the soldiers who took Omashu,” Luzon bragged. “We’ve since joined with the Admiral and the Southern Raiders, to continue the good fight.”</p><p>The waterbender scowled and looked up at the grizzled general for the first time, staring into his cold, dead eyes. “The war is over,” she said hoarsely.</p><p>Luzon bent down, his nose mere inches from Katara’s, as he said, “I’m aware. We’re not delusional. We’re not fighting the old war. We’re starting a new one.”</p><p>Her eyes widened in realization, her mind and heart suddenly sprinting together in a two-legged race. “You’re insane.”</p><p>“I’m sure that’s what they told you before you embarked on your own ‘epic’ quest,” the general drawled, straightening and strolling back to the door.</p><p>“Aang will stop you. <em>We </em>will stop you,” she insisted, pulling at her chains.</p><p>Luzon just shook his head as he pulled the door open. He turned back to Katara. “And, of course, as an added bonus, we’ve accomplished the great original task delivered to the Southern Raiders by the Fire Lord: wipe out or capture the benders of the Southern Water Tribe.”</p><p>The door slammed shut as she yanked and tugged and desperately struggled against her bonds, screaming, “Let me go, you animals! Let me go! <em>Let me go!</em>”</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>Minutes turned to hours turned to days turned to weeks. Without a window to the sky or people to talk to, time lost all meaning. Katara’s initial fear had drained from her. The Raiders didn’t torture her. They didn’t even really hurt her, except for practically starving her with the meager, force-fed hunks of stale bread and rotting vegetables they called a <em>meal</em>. Bathroom breaks came twice a day, though given how dehydrated she was getting from the meager amount of water they gave her, their need had diminished over the days or weeks or months or years she had been in her metal cell. Her arms and legs were exhausted. All she wanted to do was lie down, but the Raiders refused. When she did get some sleep, it was never for long. So, for however many decades she’d been stuck in that cell, most of her time was spent staring at one of the illuminating braziers in the corner and fighting off delirium.</p><p><em>Is this their plan? Make me slowly go insane until they don’t have to worry about me anymore?</em> she wondered.</p><p>The most exciting parts of her days had become when she would get water. It was incredibly depressing that that had become the case, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. Water was her element, and it gave her new life and some temporary mental clarity every time she was given her three swallows of liquid from a small cup at the end of a stick, attended by no less than four firebenders. Though Katara was growing weaker by the day, she was still a worrisome enough threat to warrant a small army keeping watch.</p><p>Every detail of the routine had been memorized by her. First, the door would eke open. Then in would walk two Raiders, one of whom would hold open the door as the other kept an eye on Katara and the remaining pair entered. One held the water at the end of a bronze rod, and, flanked by two of his friends, would walk until he was precisely ten feet away from the waterbender. The rod would then be thrust out, and Katara would drink down the liquid in the small cup at the end of it. All four firebenders would then slowly back out of the room, lock the door, and leave her to her thoughts for an indeterminate length of time.</p><p>About a week into this charade—she’d finally managed to pick up on what day it was from overhearing the hushed conversations of the guards outside her cell—Katara decided she’d had enough, and began formulating a plan for the next time water was delivered. Clearly, the Southern Raiders didn’t fully understand just how waterbending worked.</p><p>The following morning, Katara anticipated the arrival of her water. She steadied her breathing, anxious for what was to come.</p><p>“She might be an ice savage, but I can see why she’s the Avatar’s choice of a whore,” laughed one of the firebenders as the door swung open with a thunderous groan.</p><p>“Shut the fuck up. You’re married, you shouldn’t be talking that way,” hissed another.</p><p>The first bender strode in and held the door, replying, “Ah, what're you gonna do, tell the commander?”</p><p>“Both of you be quiet. We’re on duty,” the third bender ordered, cradling the water-holding device.</p><p>Katara was limp in her chains, almost parallel to the floor, staring down through a forest of brown curls. The feet of one of the soldiers appeared at the top of her vision, and the voice belonging to them directed, “Wake up.”</p><p>The waterbender didn’t move, but her pulse still quickened.</p><p>“Up! Come on, wake up, you uncivilized savage! It’s time for—”</p><p>Katara jerked her head up violently, causing the water in the cup to fly out and hit the bender holding it in the chin with the force of an ascending rocket. The other three guards shouted in surprise, igniting their arms with angry tongues of fire, but Katara was unfazed. The water was hers to control. She lurched her head to the right and the liquid followed, hitting her foe in the solar plexus, and sending him flying. The next Raider barely had enough time to throw a fireball before his leg was enwrapped in a watery tentacle and he was lifted in the air, impacting the ceiling and dropping to the ground, unconscious. The last bender took one look at his fallen comrades and fled out the door. Katara willed the water to come to her, forming it into a dangerously sharp blade that thusly cut through her chains. The steel mitts over her hands were shattered when she froze them in ice and smashed them into the pillars she had been tied to.</p><p>The entire encounter lasted under a minute.</p><p>Katara ran out of her cell and into a hallway. It was entirely constructed of metal, sheets of steel and iron riveted together and interspliced only with ventilation shafts that puffed in cold air and sucked out hot. Her bare feet slapped against the floor as she tore around a corner, only to come face-to-face with a duo of spear-wielding soldiers. They seemed nervous, no doubt having heard stories of the last southern waterbender. She snapped out her liquid like a whip, ricocheting off of the two's helmets and knocking them out in an instant.</p><p>Coming to a fork in the road, Katara peeled left, enraged voices and boots on metal following her. An unwitting Raider had his windpipe crushed as a water whip flattened him against the wall. Katara paused briefly to grab the canteen from his waist before running off again, leaving the soldier behind, hacking and wheezing and thoroughly confused. She emptied the container and let it join the ring of water she had spinning around her shoulders.</p><p>At some point, the metal beneath her gave way to stone, and ornate carvings began to grace the walls, though they'd been graffitied over with Southern Raider signage—an artistic tragedy, but helpful in directing Katara to a way out. She huffed and puffed, hovering on the edge of fatigue, but she pressed on, following the arrow on the wall that screamed <strong>ROOF </strong>in block letters. The waterbender ran across a staircase and took the steps two at a time, flying to the top. She burst through a steel door that had been haphazardly wedged into a stone passageway and exploded out into the light.</p><p>A strangely… blue light?</p><p>"What in the name of all that's sacred…" gasped Katara as she looked straight up.</p><p>The sky was gone. It had been replaced by another wild blue yonder—the ocean. At least, that's all that she could imagine it could be. The teal water stretched as far as the eye could see, though the sun still shone through, casting a mottled azure shade on everything. As Katara's eyes moved down, she saw something perhaps even more amazing than the sea above: a city. She stood at the top of a titanic building overlooking an expansive ancient metropolis. Aang and Zuko had told her no shortage of stories about the forgotten home of the original firebenders, and this was exactly how she had imagined that might look, but with a distinctly aquatic flavor.</p><p>"Magnificent, isn't it?" called a voice Katara had grown all too familiar with. She turned to see General Luzon materialize from the staircase she had just climbed, a half-dozen Raiders in tow.</p><p>Wide eyed and terrified, Katara said nothing.</p><p>"I suppose you're wondering where we are, and I can't very well keep you from knowing when you've seen all this," he remarked, spreading his arms wide.</p><p>"Sir," one of the grunts interrupted, "are you sure we should--"</p><p>"Silence! I call the shots! I think that the savage <em>deserves </em>to know where she is, so she might see how far her people have fallen."</p><p>"My people…?" Katara said, frowning.</p><p>Luzon nodded. "Yes, <em>your </em>people. We stand in the center of the lost city of Aegium—lost, that is, until <em>we </em>rediscovered it. This is the center of the forgotten civilization of the Central Water Tribe—better known as the Aquatic Empire."</p><p>"That's just a fairytale!" Katara protested. "It's a parable decrying greed and the lust for power and war and—"</p><p>"Then where are we standing right now? This was the beating heart of a ruthless empire, before your people squandered it all and scrambled for your snow huts. The Water Tribes are the pathetic scraps of a great nation! A nation you savages are not fit to call yourselves the successors to!"</p><p>"I wouldn't concern yourself with nationalism right now, General Luzon," she shot back, her chest heaving. "You all just made a <em>big mistake</em>."</p><p>Katara punched up at the air, grasping for the ocean hundreds of yards above, but the water would not move. Frantically, she tried again, demanding that the rapids heed her commands, but the sea refused.</p><p>"Oh, now that's not going to work," the officer sneered. "The lunar towers throughout the city are much too powerful for a single waterbender to overcome."</p><p>"The what?"</p><p>"You think the water is holding itself up?" scoffed Luzon. "There are towers dispersed throughout this city which use the power of the moon channeled by the Temple of Duality."</p><p>Katara took a step back, brandishing her water whip. "You're not going to put me back in that cell. I won't let you."</p><p>"No, I suppose we can't put you back in that cell, considering you escaped so <em>easily</em>. A smaller one with increased security will do, though we'll have to see what the Admiral wants."</p><p>With a guttural roar, Katara leapt forward, slicing the air with her whip. Luzon easily stepped back, the water missing by a mile, and retaliated with his own fire blast that boiled the weapon into hot air. To his surprise, Katara pulled more water from seemingly nowhere, and turned it into a handful of ice daggers that she threw at the general and his men. One of them pierced the armor of a bender, and at the sign of blood Luzon yelled, "Enough! Do it now!"</p><p>There was the sound of someone sprinting at full speed, and Katara whirled around just in time to see a figure in tight black wrappings flying towards her, the butt of their sword aimed at her temple.</p><p>And she was out like a light.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Zero, Zero</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Northern Outpost was a strange sight. Once the northernmost military base of the Fire Nation and the staging ground for Admiral Zhao’s inglorious assault on the Northern Water Tribe, it had long been decommissioned and handed back over to the Earth Kingdom. Trouble was, they didn’t know what to do with the place. It had sat empty of people and full of wartime Fire Nation furnishings for quite some time until, after much prodding and pleading, the site was handed over to the mechanist who resided in the Northern Air Temple—or, more accurately, his son, Teo, who had a passion for science and intended to use the place as a hub for his own research and development.</p><p>As Appa came soaring over the mountains, Aang frowned down at the collection of buildings nestled inside a cove, skirting the edge of a gravel beach. Some of the structures were weatherbeaten and dull, sinking into the ground, while others, like the massive airship hangar, glittered in their brand-new coats of paint. The airbender urged his sky bison to descend, and they landed just inside the compound. Aang hopped down as the rest of his friends slid off the saddle on the other side.</p><p>“Jeez, would you look at that!” shouted Sokka, letting out a long, slow whistle.</p><p>Aang rounded the furry white beast to see what all the hubbub was about, and he was not disappointed. Shoved diagonally into the mouth of the hangar was part of a ship. It was falling apart, clearly having seen action, but the name could just barely be made out: HMS <em>Tinder</em>.</p><p>“Oh, Spirits,” Zuko whispered. “That’s the ship Katara was on.”</p><p>Sokka’s jovial attitude immediately disintegrated. “What? Aang is he—”</p><p>“Yep,” the airbender replied soberly, “That’s the one.”</p><p>Aang, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, and Suki moved closer to the wreckage, only to be stopped by a familiar face. “Is that Team Avatar I see?” Teo laughed, wheeling out from around the corner. The group exchanged pleasantries with their old friend and tried to bring him up to speed, though he stopped them early in the story, saying, “I’ve heard it all. The survivors made it here after the battle, and they’re resting up before going back home.”</p><p>Sokka perked up. “They’re still here? Can we see them?”</p><p>“Of course, you can!” replied Teo, rolling ahead as he beckoned them forward. “We remade part of this building into a cross between hospital and barracks, so you’ll have to follow me through.”</p><p>Aang looked at the twisting mess of metal and machinery above him. He could now see that it was half of the ship’s bow, held from the ceiling by sturdy, industrial cables. At least a dozen workers climbed around the surface, secured in safety harnesses, sawing off pieces and stowing them away in their pouches.</p><p>“Teo,” began Zuko, “I hate to be a stick-in-the-mud, but that ship <em>is </em>Fire Nation property, and I don’t appreciate you cutting it up. Where’s the rest of it gone?”</p><p>“That <em>is </em>it. There wasn’t any more,” the young mechanist explained. “The Raiders sank the <em>Tinder </em>by blowing up the boiler and the engines with it. That atomized everything but the front left—the part furthest from the blast.”</p><p>Aang bit the inside of his cheek, saying, “Let’s move on, shall we?”</p><p>“It’s not all bad news,” Teo added. “A special friend is here, too.”</p><p>“Who?” Toph wondered.</p><p>The scientist put on the breaks and dug around in his pocket, producing a shiny red apple. Without warning he tossed it straight up, but before it had even reached the height of its ascent it was snatched out of the air by a black-and-white blur.</p><p>“Momo!” cheered the airbender as the flying lemur skidded to a stop on the hangar floor and attacked his snack with intense voracity.</p><p>“The poor little guy was hiding on the ship when it blew, but he made it out okay,” Teo told the group.</p><p>The team gathered around Momo and took turns squeezing the life out of him, which he was not pleased with, trying to weasel his way out of their grasps to finish his apple. The lemur finally was allowed to rest, curled around Aang’s shoulders. The familiar spark of childish glee was back in the bender’s eyes after having been absent for far too long. Unfortunately, the euphoria would be short-lived.</p><p>“These are the barracks,” uttered Teo.</p><p>The back corner of the hangar had presumably been a place for the welders and engineers working on the numerous airships and vehicles to relax and unwind, but it had been overtaken by a whirlwind of medical and military supplies. A row of bunk beds had been erected, rubbing elbows with a couch covered in a white sheet stained red and a pile of discarded armor, clothing, bandages, and blankets on the carpet. Aang counted six people in total strewn about the place, most of them asleep, though one man was staring at them with wonder on his face.</p><p>“Fire Lord Zuko!” he gasped, wincing as he moved his wounded legs to sit at the edge of the bed, then struggled to his feet, saluting briskly. “It’s an honor.”</p><p>“Sit down, please,” Zuko said quickly, seeing the man’s wobbling legs. “And I’m not technically Fire Lord right now, my uncle has—”</p><p>“I don’t care. You’re still my commander-in-chief whether you’re wearing that crown or not. I’m Nizen, captain of that hunk of scrap,” he replied stubbornly, gesturing to what remained of the HMS <em>Tinder</em>. “Or at least… I was.”</p><p>Suki glanced around, asking, “Is this everyone that made it off?”</p><p>Nizen’s knees finally gave out and he collapsed back onto his bed. “This is everyone. So, what can I do for you all? It’s not every day a lowly ship captain meets <em>Team Avatar</em>.”</p><p>Sokka silently gave himself a fist bump.</p><p>Zuko cleared his throat and said, “Well, Captain Nizen, we’re searching for Katara, of the Southern Water Tribe, and since you were the last person to see her, we were hoping you would—”</p><p>“You were hoping I would know something?” he interrupted. “I don’t know much more than what I put in that letter. All I can truly say is, the Southern Raiders are terrifying in number, in power, in efficiency… they’re the marriage of piratical bloodthirst and wartime Fire Navy ruthlessness. They also made mention of some Admiral, but they never said his name.”</p><p>“Do you have any idea where they were going?” Sokka questioned.</p><p>“In terms of location? No. But they were sailing southwest. Except for the guys who went after those Water Tribe skiffs headed north.”</p><p>Suki snapped her fingers. “<em>That’s </em>what Pakku wrote about.”</p><p>“I’m afraid I don’t know much else,” Nizen admitted.</p><p>Zuko nodded. “You’ve been a big help already. We wouldn’t have even <em>known </em>the specifics if you hadn’t made it out of there.”</p><p>The captain nodded. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”</p><p>“Again, I’m not really Fire Lo—” Zuko began, only to be kicked in the shin by Toph.</p><p>“Just take the compliment, idiot,” she huffed.</p><p>“So,” Teo began, “was that much help?”</p><p>“I think we need to go see the Northern Water Tribe,” Aang stated.</p><p>Sokka looked unsure. “You really think Pakku would have held back information?”</p><p>“As helpful as ‘sailing southwest’ was, we can’t just fly aimlessly in that direction. We need a <em>location</em>.”</p><p>“And why would Pakku know the location when this guy right in front of us saw the captain of the Raider ship <em>with his own eyes</em>?”</p><p>“It’s the only other lead we have, Sokka!” exploded Aang.</p><p>“…I know, I know. I suppose that is the only other option we have right now.”</p><p>Murmurs of agreement bounced around the group, until Teo interrupted, saying, “Great! You all can leave in the morning. We’ll set up some beds for you. In the meantime: Sokka, I have some <em>very </em>exciting inventions to show you…”</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>One would think that after spending half a decade with the Avatar, flight would be underwhelming, but it was Suki’s perennial pleasure to hop on the back of her favorite sky bison and take to the clouds. She chalked it up to a life of living on the outer rim of the Earth Kingdom, where rocks and mountains and trees were permanent, unmovable, and rooted things. She adored Kyoshi with every fiber of her being, but flight offered her a welcome, yet temporary, escape from those certainties of the ground.</p><p>It was the fresh memory of that, then, that kept her from eating away at herself from worry.</p><p>She wasn’t just worried about Katara, her little sister in everything but name, being missing. Suki was worried about her other friends. Her fiancé hid his grief well after that initial outburst at the South Pole, but Sokka’s usual jokey self had almost disappeared. And Aang… Aang was depressed. She could tell. He was perpetually angry, and he seemed desperate. His violent lashing out at Sokka had been entirely out of touch with his pacifist nature. But when he wasn’t angry, he was quiet, never talking, just sitting at the front of Appa, alone. Everyone had noticed—she could tell—but no one brought it up, as if hoping the situation would rectify itself.</p><p>That’s why she’d changed her mind about staying in the south, made the trek north on her own, and met up with the rest of the gang in some small town they’d miraculously both been in at the same time. Suki could hopefully give Sokka and Aang both someone to talk to.</p><p>That, and it was also all kinds of awkward staying with Hakoda and Kanna without Sokka or Katara. But mostly the first thing.</p><p>Suki tiptoed out of the room she shared with her fiancé, pulling the door shut without a sound, though she doubted he could have heard the door <em>slamming </em>over his earth-shattering snores. As she’d suspected, the door to Aang’s room hung open, and the bed inside was empty. Suki shook her head and turned to follow the hall down to the staircase leading up to the roof.</p><p>“Leave me alone,” said a somber, familiar voice.</p><p>Aang sat at the edge of the roof, his arms wrapped around the guard rail, letting his legs dangle over the rocks below. When he turned, his gray eyes caught the glint of the moon, and they stuck out like two spotlights on a darkened stage. “Oh,” he added, “I thought you were Zuko. What are you doing up here, Suki?”</p><p>The Kyoshi Warrior looked around nervously, then said, “I wanted to talk to you.”</p><p>“Here we go again,” Aang moaned, turning back to face the ocean. “I don’t want to talk.”</p><p>“I know you don’t want to,” she sighed, sitting down beside him. “But it’s not healthy to keep this bottled up inside you. When my father died—”</p><p>“Suki, I <em>don’t </em>want to talk,” he reiterated. The two of them were quiet, until Aang finally said, “I’m sorry, that was insensitive of me. It’s just… people keep trying to talk to me like I’m an idiot. Like I’ve never been sad before. I’m the <em>last </em>of my <em>people</em>! I started a century-long war! I’m used to tragedy! It’s been my entire life so far.”</p><p>“That’s not true.”</p><p>“It may as well be.”</p><p>“You’re not being fair to yourself. You’ve had your dark spots, but <em>everyone </em>has dark spots—some darker than others,” Suki added, seeing his hesitant expression. “But you’re not alone, and you don’t have to face this alone.”</p><p>Aang frowned, uncertain.</p><p>“You <em>can’t </em>face this alone. It’ll destroy you,” Suki intoned, looking him in those cold, gray eyes.</p><p>“I… I know. It’s already… I… sometimes, recently, I can’t waterbend.”</p><p>The Kyoshi Warrior furrowed her brow. “What?”</p><p>“When I was with Zuko at the Ceremony of Transition, when those Raiders attacked and the Royal Guard revolted, I tried to bend this water, and I just couldn’t do it. I can still waterbend now if I really, <em>really </em>concentrate, but in the heat of the moment… I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it.”</p><p>Suki nodded, glancing down at her lap. “Well, since I’m not a bender, I’m not sure I can be of much use to you there, but when I was training back on Kyoshi, and emotion and stress and distraught clouded my mind, I’d just try to clear my head while I trained. I’d separate my life from my body, and that’s what lets me keep a straight face in any battle, no matter how emotionally distressing.”</p><p>“That’s some idea,” Aang said after a long while.</p><p>“Yeah, it’s—”</p><p>“I’m gonna go try it,” he interjected, sliding under the rails and falling into the inky black darkness towards the sounds of waves crashing on a stony shore.</p><p>Suki sighed again and banged her forehead into the rail. <em>That didn’t go well</em>, she thought.</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>Upon arriving at Agna Qel’a, the capital of the North, anyone unfamiliar with the way the place worked would have never suspected anything was off. Sokka was anything <em>but </em>unfamiliar. He’d been to the Northern Water Tribe more times than he could count, though he always insisted that Suki come along, too. Her being there was the only way he could keep the moon off his mind. In any case, Sokka always could tell when the North Pole was on high alert.</p><p>This was one of those times.</p><p>“They aren’t kidding around,” he remarked, pointing out the extra watchtowers on the shore and the dozens of footmen patrolling the city walls to the others.</p><p>“The attacks must have scared them,” Zuko added. “With good reason.”</p><p>“Can we just hurry up? I can’t see with these damn shoes on my feet!” Toph urged, having been forced into snow boots by Aang and Sokka so that her toes wouldn’t turn purple and fall off in the ice.</p><p>“You want a hand?” offered the airbender.</p><p>“I can do this <em>my</em>self, thank you!”</p><p>“…You want my staff to feel around with?”</p><p>Toph turned up her nose at him, then, in a huff, snatched the outstretched staff out of his hands. “This means nothing,” she warned, poking him in the chest with it.</p><p>Team Avatar navigated the complex system of sidewalks, bridges, and canals that made up the city’s network of streets. There weren’t many people out and about, despite the sun being high in the sky, but those that roamed from building to building were sure to greet the group of heroes. Some of them paused to congratulate Sokka and Suki, her crudely-carved-but-endearing betrothal necklace displayed proudly at her throat. By the time they reached the bottom of the wide staircase leading to the palace, Sokka felt like he’d already suffered through an entire wedding reception.</p><p>“I hate this place,” the tribesman groaned.</p><p>“I’ll second that,” threw in Zuko.</p><p>“Hear, hear!” proclaimed Toph, accidentally smacking Suki upside the head with Aang’s staff.</p><p>They trudged up to the palace courtyard, where, much to their pleasant surprise,  Master Pakku stood waiting, his hands clasped behind his back.</p><p>“Hope we didn’t leave you out in the cold,” shivered Sokka.</p><p>Signs of a distant smile tugged at his lips, but Pakku steeled himself and said, “We figured you would show up eventually. Come inside, we have much to discuss.”</p><p>“That doesn’t sound good.”</p><p>“Nor does it sound bad.”</p><p>Obviously, the <em>entire </em>palace that the Royal Family of the Northern Water Tribe lived in wasn’t made of packed snow and blocks of ice. As one made their way closer and closer to the core, imported materials like wood, stone, and even metal began appearing in the architecture, until the snow was entirely replaced. The Great Hall that lay deep within the building was an artistic marvel, something Sokka could tell just by crossing the threshold. He was wonderstruck, staring up at the arched ceiling, the rafters and columns around the space carved from the trunks of mighty trees felled in the Earth Kingdom a long time ago, something Momo seemed to appreciate as he zipped up to investigate. A spectacular mural bled down from the roof to the walls, depicting the full moon hanging over a beautiful, tropical, seaside settlement with the spirits Tui and La superimposed over the scene. The town, Sokka thought, was eerily familiar, though he couldn’t put his finger on why. Everyone—except Toph—was in awe.</p><p>“I thought this place was just ice!” gaped Zuko.</p><p>“Most of it is, but the oldest parts are more permanent than just frozen water,” Pakku exposited.</p><p>“Our ancestors certainly knew how to build, didn’t they?”</p><p>Everyone swiveled to see Chief Arnook gliding towards them, his robes aflutter on a nonexistent wind. His appearance was both regal and reserved, showing his high status and closeness to the everyman. Team Avatar immediately bowed, which Arnook nodded at before making a beeline to Zuko, grabbing his hand and shaking vigorously. “It isn’t every day the Fire Lord visits the North Pole. I apologize for our lack of a warm welcome.”</p><p>“This is warm enough for me,” Zuko replied. “Though, technically, my uncle—”</p><p>“Is Fire Lord?” Arnook cut in. “Yes, we received the correspondence. We also received <em>another </em>letter I’m sure you’ll all be interested in, but— by the phases of the moon, is that the Avatar with you as well?”</p><p>The chief cut past Sokka and Suki to shake hands with Aang as well, before bowing himself. “Every visit you make to Agna Qel’a, I find it impossible to not thank you for your great service to our nation and the world.”</p><p>“Thanks. But, um, what were you saying about a letter…?” the teenager pressed, being unusually direct.</p><p>Arnook’s eyes lit up in recognition, and he frowned. “Right. That. Master Pakku, could you retrieve the scroll from that table?”</p><p>The waterbender bowed, then did as he was directed, returning with a large piece of parchment rolled up around a small wooden rod and handing it off to the chief. He rolled it open, and Sokka thought he stared right in <em>his </em>eyes before clearing his thread and beginning, “<em>To the Capitals of the Three Nations and the Great Cities of the World: Though this letter is addressed to you, it is not meant for you. It is meant for the Avatar. Warrior, by this point you must know us. We are the nightmare that haunts your mind. We have made the unthinkable happen, and we invite you to try to undo it. That which you hold most dear can be found in a secret place, lost even to time itself. Only the moon knows its location, for this place resides within its expansive domain.</em></p><p>
  <em>Oorah!</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Find us.</em>
</p><p><em>The Raiders.</em>”</p><p>Everyone was quiet for a moment, until Toph piped up, “Where did they send that to?”</p><p>“Everywhere, it seems,” Arnook shrugged. “They wanted to be heard. These are the same people that stole your sister, Sokka?”</p><p>“Huh?” the tribesman slurred, jolted from his thoughts. “Yeah, the Raiders took Katara.”</p><p>“If they want us to find them, why don’t they just tell us <em>where </em>they are?” Aang shouted.</p><p>“They sent a copy of this letter to every major settlement around the world. I doubt they wanted their exact coordinates broadcasted to every single nation and their armies,” reasoned Suki.</p><p>“So it’s a riddle, then,” stated Zuko. “A riddle we have to work out for ourselves.”</p><p>“Great, a puzzle. I hate puzzles,” Toph grumbled, crossing her arms.</p><p>Aang took the scroll from Chief Arnook and walked over to the giant table at the center of the room, taking a seat at its head. “Too bad, Toph. Stop moaning. We have work to do.”</p><p>Several hours later, the buzz of excitement that the reading of the letter had created had all but fizzled out. The information given was simply too vague, something everyone agreed on, though Aang feverishly read and reread the message every few minutes.</p><p>“They have Katara in a secret place. <em>Where</em>?” he muttered.</p><p>“That <em>is </em>the question, isn’t it,” Toph chided.</p><p>“Maybe we should get Arnook or Pakku back out here,” offered Zuko.</p><p>“What, and ask them the same six questions again?” Suki scoffed.</p><p>“There has to be <em>something </em>we haven’t tried.”</p><p>“The Raiders are probably just taunting us,” Toph uttered. “Why would they want to give themselves away?”</p><p>“Maybe they <em>want </em>to be found,” Suki said hopefully, tracing a line with her finger across the massive world map splayed out across the table.</p><p>“Pfft. Sure, if that’s true, I’ll eat my champion’s belt.”</p><p>Zuko sighed, “I still think it has to do with the Air Temples. The moon’s domain <em>is </em>the sky.”</p><p>“That’s impossible. I’ve been to all of the uninhabited Air Temples recently. There was no sign of <em>anyone</em> living in any of them,” Aang responded.</p><p>Toph wrinkled her nose. “The only other option is, what, go to outer space? Somehow I doubt the Raiders built a rocket.”</p><p>Sokka was slung over the arms of a chair, lolling his head as he stared at the Great Hall’s mural upside down, out of ideas and out of energy. Then, suddenly, his brain whirred to life as he reexamined the painting. Breathlessly, he exclaimed, “Wait a minute—what if the moon’s domain <em>isn’t </em>the sky or space? What if it’s the <em>ocean</em>?”</p><p>“The <em>ocean</em>?” gasped Aang.</p><p>“Yeah! Think about it: the moon’s gravity is what <em>creates the tides</em>. The moon’s domain isn’t where it <em>is</em>, it’s where it has <em>control</em>!”</p><p>“That… actually makes some sense, Sokka,” said Toph.</p><p>“I’m not just the meat and sarcasm guy, you know. I’m also the detective,” he said proudly.</p><p>“But what does the rest of the letter mean? That’s great progress, but we’re not much closer to the location,” Suki argued.</p><p>“Yeah, what are we supposed to do, check every island from here to the South Pole?” wondered Aang.</p><p>“Nope! Because I know <em>exactly </em>where they’re keeping Katara!” Sokka declared, jumping to his feet and pointing at the mural with a pen. “I knew from the moment I walked in here that I’d seen that village before. But I only realized <em>where </em>I’d seen it just now.”</p><p>By this point, the rest of the group was hanging onto his every word like a vine over quicksand.</p><p>“When we were kids, my dad used to put Katara and I to bed every night with a story. There were a lot of them, but my absolute favorite was the tale of the Lost Empire. It was a swashbuckling adventure, a vibrant retelling of some crusty old legend about an old city run by an old sect of the Water Tribe. But the seaside metropolis they described and the pictures in the book were <em>identical</em> to that mural! Ladies and gentlemen, we are not looking for an island! We are looking for the Lost City of Aegium, capital of the fallen Aquatic Empire!”</p><p>“…Keep dreaming, waterboy,” Toph remarked.</p><p>“That seems a little unlikely, Sokka,” opined Suki.</p><p>The tribesman smirked and wagged his finger. “No, no—that’s not all. That letter ends with the phrase, ‘<em>Oorah</em>!’ That isn’t a Fire Nation phrase, is it, Zuko?”</p><p>“Well, no, but—”</p><p>“<em>Exactly</em>. It’s a Water Tribe saying. But it’s not a modern one. It’s old. <em>Really </em>old. Ancient, even. Legend has it that it was the battle cry of the navy of the Aquatic Empire, from the days it ruled the waves and the world. When literally translated from the ancient language they likely spoke, it means, ‘<em>For the Empire</em>’. And as you know, the Water Tribes haven’t had empires in a very, very long time.”</p><p>“Why did you become Mister Encyclopedia all of a sudden?” the earthbender pondered.</p><p>“I had a lot of time to read after Dad left for war,” he said sheepishly.</p><p>“And really, you’re hedging our bets on a probably-mangled translation of an ancient word?” frowned Toph. “And that <em>still </em>doesn’t answer where these people are. The city is lost, isn’t it? We’re back at square one.”</p><p>Sokka shook his head. “<em>Au contraire</em>, my dear student. The city might be lost, but there are countless theories as to where it might be. The most compelling of which ties into the other name of the Aquatic Empire: the <em>Central </em>Water Tribe. Located precisely here!” he pronounced, slapping the pen down on the middle of the map. “Coordinates zero, zero.”</p><p>She was unimpressed. “Zero, zero? Riddle me this, genius, if everyone knows where it is, how come no one has ever confirmed its existence?”</p><p>“Because, Toph, there’s a <em>lot </em>of water to move to get to the bottom of the ocean, and you’d have to somehow keep a fresh oxygen supply coming down from the surface, too. You’d need an <em>exceptionally </em>powerful waterbender to do all that. <em>Avatar</em> powerful.”</p><p>All eyes fell upon Aang, who stared back uncomfortably.</p><p>“Your call, Twinkletoes,” said Toph, propping her bare feet up on the polished mahogany. “I think it’s all a wild goose chase meant to waste our time, but hey, what do I know? I’m not in charge here.”</p><p>The last airbender hesitated, unsure of himself. Risking precious time while hunting down Sokka’s far-fetched lead seemed unwise, but then again, it was their <em>only </em>lead. And they couldn’t very well search the entire world for hide or hair of the Southern Raiders.</p><p>“I say we do it,” Aang announced. “Let’s go to zero, zero.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Going Under</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If there was anything Aang disliked, it was tight spaces. Was he claustrophobic? No, of course not. But he <em>was </em>an Air Nomad, and though he’d grown up in a plain room with a hard bed, small, enclosed areas still made him uncomfortable. Where was the space to run around? To spread his legs? To fly? To breathe? To get away from it all for a little while? Monk Gyatso had had a saying: “No adventure ever begins in a small room.” Given that he’d been on many an adventure that had started in a small room, Aang was unsure of that statement’s validity but nevertheless appreciated the spirit.</p><p>Curled up in a ball in the corner, Aang mulled over all one-hundred-and-seventeen-years of his life. That century in the iceberg didn’t really count, but between his twelve years before the freeze and his five years after the thaw, he’d amassed quite the mental library. The airbender could, at a moment’s notice, pull any volume off a shelf and find an answer to most of life’s problems. So why was it, then, as he rocked back and forth, his knees tucked to his chest, that Aang felt pangs of claustrophobia and wave after wave of dread and despair?</p><p>Below deck was no place to be. It was tight and cramped, and Aang hated knowing that in a few short minutes he would be tasked with some intensive waterbending. Had the seas at zero, zero not been full of coral reefs, they might have been able to go down in a submarine—which would still need waterbending to work, but it would be less nerve-wracking for him, knowing that he wasn’t the only thing between them and drowning. But the sub had been ruled out, and here they were in a dinky little Water Tribe skiff, not even enough room to fit all five of them on deck at one time.</p><p>“<em>Land, ho!</em>” rumbled Sokka, his voice penetrating the wooden floorboards and canvas. “Aang, get your butt up here!”</p><p>Grumbling, but also excitedly nervous, the airbender picked himself up and climbed the short ladder to the top decks, emerging from the dark, shaded interior of the boat. Looming before the vessel was a cliff shooting straight up into the sky, with the sea lapping at a small beach at its base. Everyone braced themselves as Sokka carefully maneuvered the boat to gently run aground, coming to a stop in the shallows. The group disembarked and reconvened on the sand, as Appa, who had spent the whole journey south lazily floating behind them, landed nearby in a cloud of dust.</p><p>“Directly ahead is point zero, zero,” Zuko said, stretching an arm over the ocean. “Where the equator and prime meridian intersect.”</p><p>“The prime what-now?” Toph wondered.</p><p>“It’s a line on the map going north to south, from Pole to Pole. The equator is actually important, because it’s the planet’s widest point, where the planet spins slightly faster and temperatures are the warmest. It intersects with the Si Wong Desert and the Ryoku Archipelago, after all. But the prime meridian is just a line on the map, drawn arbitrarily through the Royal Observatory in Yu Dao.”</p><p>Sokka blinked. “You sure got some fancy book learnin’ as a kid, didn’t you?”</p><p>“Yes, and also I spent three years of my life at sea. I know the rules of the waves,” the firebender added.</p><p>“I just never paid attention during my classes,” Toph remarked.</p><p>“Okay, well… Aang? Are you ready for this?” Sokka asked.</p><p>The airbender took a shaky breath, then said, “Ready.”</p><p>He stepped in front of the rest of them and tried to drain everything from his mind, as Suki had told him. He’d had some luck the other night doing that, but his waterbending had not been flawless. He’d need to be perfect <em>now</em>, though. Aang steadied himself, pressing his knuckles together, then sliced his hand skyward. The ocean before him jumped into the air, splitting in twain. He then spread his arms open wide, and the seas parted with them. Aang directed Toph and Zuko to go first and for Sokka and Suki to follow, with himself in the middle. He held back the waves as they walked forward until he could hold them back no more, instead reshaping their dry patch into a big bubble. A small whirlpool at the top funneled air down from the surface, ensuring they wouldn’t suffocate.</p><p>Aang felt his feet sink into the wet sand as they traversed the ocean floor. His brow was slick with sweat as the airbender concentrated hard on keeping the water above them and not on them. Soon enough, he’d gotten into enough of a rhythm that he felt comfortable engaging in conversation, though his voice was strained and his attention divided.</p><p>“This is so cool,” Sokka mumbled, watching a pod of dolphins dart overhead.</p><p>“I can barely see,” Toph complained. “Wet sand isn’t exactly an ideal medium to sense vibrations through.”</p><p>“You’re—<em>ack</em>—fine, Toph,” Aang grunted. He felt the water slipping from his control as his brain pivoted towards worrying about Katara, and he abruptly came to a halt.</p><p>“You good, man?” Zuko asked.</p><p>“Let him concentrate,” ordered Suki. “Can’t you use the Avatar State?”</p><p>Aang grunted in reply, “No… don’t want to be tired for… urgh… <em>big fight</em>.” He stood there a few moments longer, gathering himself, before nodding, “I’m alright to go on.”</p><p>Team Avatar suddenly found themselves amongst a bright and colorful underwater forest, one built of coral and inhabited by innumerable tropical fish. It was a truly magical sight, creatures every tint and shade of the rainbow flitting about like birds darting through treetops. One particularly curious flounder got too close to their bubble and fell inside, flopping pathetically on the ground until Sokka picked it up and tossed it back in the water. As they came out of the reef, the ground slanted downwards sharply to an almost forty-five degree angle. Everyone struggled to keep their footing as the hill only got steeper and steeper, until it was nearly impossible to stand.</p><p>“What’s that?” Zuko wondered, pointing into the crevasse before them.</p><p>Aang squinted, but he couldn’t make out much due to the ocean’s murkiness. All that was there was a light, seemingly covering the entire bottom of the trench, though Aang reasoned that that was just the water playing tricks on him.</p><p>“Towards the spooky light at the bottom of an undersea canyon, or away?” Sokka debated, weighting both options in his hands. “I’d say <em>away</em>.”</p><p>Suki rolled her eyes. “You’re the one who <em>also </em>said Aegium would be at the bottom of the sea. This is our best bet so far.”</p><p>“I know, but… I was kinda hoping the city would be a little closer to the surface? Like, I might be from the <em>Water </em>Tribe, but that doesn’t mean I like water enough to be crushed to death by its pressure.”</p><p>“We’ll be good, Sokka,” reassured Aang. “I’ve got the pressure thing taken care of.”</p><p>“Are we going or not, numbnuts?” shouted Toph.</p><p>“We’re going, we’ll just… need another way around.”</p><p>It had gotten so dark that Zuko lit a fireball in his hand, casting a pale orange glow over the group while they edged their way around the abyss. Anytime Aang felt his emotions welling up, he focused intently on his breathing, sucking in through his nose and blowing out through his mouth. It was hard, especially as the prospect of finding Katara seemed to become more and more likely, but he managed to stay calm. He didn’t meditate for nothing.</p><p>When Team Avatar reached the stone mountain sticking out of the sand, they felt they’d reached a dead end. Then Toph stuck her hand out through the sea and placed it on the rock, and she stated, “It’s hollow. Or at least, part of it is. Back up, kiddies.”</p><p>The earthbender plunged her foot into the sand beneath her and twisted, instantly hardening it into a flat, stable surface. She bent her knees, striking a readied stance, then punched down, a rectangle of stone moving with her. Peering inside, Aang saw a new passageway had opened up, connected to another dimly-lit corridor in the distance. He funneled the water out of the entryway and let everyone else go in first before stepping inside, Toph slamming the wall shut behind him.</p><p>“Oh Spirits, that was <em>brutal</em>,” he gasped, hardly able to stand.</p><p>“You did good, man,” Sokka said, slapping Aang on the back and knocking the wind out of him.</p><p>“You did <em>great</em>,” added Suki reassuringly.</p><p>He just nodded, panting.</p><p>“I guess we go down,” Zuko assumed when they neared the end of the tunnel, looking up and down where Toph’s passage intersected with an old staircase.</p><p>Down, down, down they went. The staircase spiraled so tightly that Aang felt dizzy, and the stone became slick with moss and condensation. The airbender, with nothing better to do, embarked on a mission to mentally prepare him for what he hoped was coming—though the detailed, ancient carvings in the walls only supported that hope. It had been two long, long weeks since Katara had been kidnapped. It had not been fun. In fact, it had been unbearable. The only time in his life that he had felt even <em>somewhat</em> similarly to how he felt now was when Appa had been stolen by those sandbenders during the war. But for as much as he loved Appa, he <em>adored</em> Katara, from head to toe to the depths of her soul. He would move heaven and earth for her, if that’s what it took. Aang shook his head, the worry in his gut rearing its ugly head once more.</p><p>“Do you think this could <em>really</em> be the Lost City of Aegium?” breathed Sokka excitedly.</p><p>“We certainly are going deep underground,” Toph answered.</p><p>“I just want to see <em>her</em> again,” Aang mumbled.</p><p>“There’s <em>light </em>up ahead,” a bewildered Zuko remarked. “Natural light.”</p><p>Sure enough, there <em>was </em>a light emanating from below. When the stairs bottomed out, Team Avatar came upon a slab of rock pretending to be a door, with bright, white, natural glow exploding from underneath. Toph immediately slammed her foot into it, bursting the stone to misshapen pieces. Aang peered inside the mysterious room, shocked at what he saw. It was a very old place, constructed of the same tannish-gray stone as the stairs, with accents and highlights in eye-popping blues spattered across the walls and floors and ceiling. A great bronze brazier stood in the middle, lukewarm and sputtering coals still smoking inside. But the far wall was hardly a wall at all, more like columns interspersed between windows, offering a breathtaking view of an ancient city. Aang had only ever seen something like it once before, when he and Zuko had encountered the ruins of the Sun Warriors’ civilization, though this place was much better taken care of. The silent metropolis looked just as it had on the mural in Agna Qel’a, just… not on the seashore. Looking up might have been more impressive, because there was no sky, only water. The Avatar could feel a strong pull inside him towards a handful of towers positioned strategically around the skyline, which seemed to be expelling powerful bending energy, and he surmised they were what was holding the ocean over their heads. A whale drifted by, and Sokka almost fainted.</p><p>“It’s… it’s… <em>so beautiful</em>!” he sobbed, tears welling up in his eyes.</p><p>“The city exists. But are the Raiders here?” frowned Zuko.</p><p>Suki pointed out the window to the left, admitting, “I’d say they are.”</p><p>Aang followed her finger and gasped at the abomination a short distance away. The city was divided up into three distinct sections, each separated by a circular canal and connected by a series of bridges and aqueducts. The stairs had spat them out in the furthest ring from the middle of the city, where it seemed most of the residential buildings were. The second ring featured a spectacular temple dedicated to the moon, given that the images of Tui and La were upon it, but the <em>center </em>housed an absolutely titanic structure, carved from solid marble and detailed in gold and lapis lazuli. It was fifteen stories tall, as high as the walls of Ba Sing Se, with masterfully carved pillars surrounding an interior cube of brilliant white. At the top, the roof peaked in a triangular shape, with depictions of spirits and heroes embedded in the edifice, though that which dominated the design was the upper half of a young woman in a toga, her hair pulled back in a bun and her arms spread wide, tongues of water touching her fingertips. Above her left shoulder was a spear, and over her right was an olive branch—war and peace. But, all was not well with the beautiful piece of architecture, for the upper half of the entire building had been defaced by sheets of metal and billowing black smokestacks, as if the upper floors had been torn out and remade. The telltale sign of Fire Nation, and, in this case, <em>Raider</em>, tampering.</p><p>Without saying a word, Aang jumped out the window.</p><p>
  <strong>/ / | \ \</strong>
</p><p>“Shit!” Sokka yelped, watching the airbender plummet, before catching himself on a pillow of air and taking off running for the center ring. His head spinning like a top, the tribesman pointed to the other side of the room and yelled, “Stairs!”</p><p>Suki, Toph, Zuko, and he raced down the staircase, which wrapped around the outside of the building and deposited them at street level. They moved fast, but Aang was faster, hopping from rooftop to rooftop until he popped open his glider and soared off. Sokka and his friends sped up, their feet flying over the pavement. In the distance, there was the sound of an explosion, and flames thirty feet high rose over the buildings as a commotion exploded on the center island. Aang had landed.</p><p>The four remaining members of Team Avatar made it to one of the bridges leading to the middle, where they were met with the group of assorted Raiders and Fire Nation veterans guarding it. Sokka moved first, unsheathing his sword and slicing it across one enemy’s calf before slamming the hilt into another Raider’s gut. Suki flipped past him, smacking a soldier across the face with her metal fans and hitting another in the groin with a well-placed kick. Then came Toph and Zuko.</p><p>“Death to the traitor!” the still-standing Raiders and soldiers screamed upon seeing the Fire Lord.</p><p>Toph gathered her hands and jabbed them up, making the rock beneath the feet of a trio of soldiers explode and launch them into the water. Zuko then finished off the last of them, setting their clothes on fire and letting them jump into the canal on their own volition. It was quick work, but Aang and the white marble pillars were still far, far away.</p><p>The four of them rushed ahead, blasting their way through whatever Raiders were unfortunate enough to cross their path, but the sounds of a true battle were around the corner. The fountain in the plaza of the middle island was something Sokka would have loved to stop and admire if it hadn’t been the centerpiece of what was left of a battlefield. Aang had entered the Avatar State and hovered over the destruction, all four elements orbiting around him. Scattered across the square were two dozen firebenders, unconscious and beaten down. Sokka grimaced when he saw the bone sticking out of one poor fellow’s forearm, but that feeling of pity and disgust quickly mutated into worry when he finally noticed Aang was <em>holding </em>someone in his bubble of elemental chaos. His hand was wrapped around the neck of a Southern Raider, his helmet split open, his armor in tatters. The Raider gasped for breath.</p><p>“<em>Where is she?</em>” Aang thundered.</p><p>“Can’t… breathe…” the young man coughed.</p><p>“<em>Where is she? Where is Katara?</em>”</p><p>Still struggling, the Raider managed to point up. Aang threw him to the ground and ascended at breakneck speeds, ignoring his friends’ pleas to just slow down and wait for them. Sokka ordered them inside the building, to look for a way to the top. The interior wound up being a massive, open chamber. Two staircases flanked the entrance, leading to a balcony a few floors above, which they instantly began climbing. As they went, Sokka felt his vision drawn to the statue in the middle of the room. It was an enormous model of the same woman who was on the front of the building, contorted into a graceful pose balanced on one toe, a boomerang in one hand and the other held like she was bending something. The woman was beautiful and obviously from one of the Water Tribes, given her dark features, but she was clad in the strange garb of a toga and a curved war-helmet with a plume topping it. Sokka assumed it must have been what they wore eons ago.</p><p>A few more flights of stairs later, and Team Avatar exploded onto the roof.</p><p>“Where’s Aang?” Zuko huffed.</p><p>“Where’s Katara?” Sokka added.</p><p>“Watch out!” screeched Toph, chucking a boulder past them and into a row of advancing Raiders.</p><p>Unlike the interior of the building, the roof was swarming with firebenders, something they were discovering just now. They poured from around every corner, appearing as if from nowhere. Team Avatar didn’t even give them a chance. They ripped through their lines, throwing fire and earth and fans and boomerangs, incapacitating as many as possible. And hey, if they got a little brain damaged, so what? They were already insane to be siding with the Southern Raiders and their mysterious Admiral. Another good bump on the noggin wouldn’t be terrible.</p><p>“Where is my sister? Where is she?” rumbled Sokka, striking down an opponent with the flat of his blade.</p><p>The four of them rounded a bend, and came to a sudden halt. A few yards away, Aang was still, though the four elements still roared around him. Sokka couldn’t make out what he was doing until he looked around the airbender, and the tribesman dropped his sword at what he saw. A figure wearing a modified uniform of a Fire Navy admiral stood calmly at the roof’s ledge, their helmet’s visor drawn shut. But that wasn’t the part Sokka was fixated on. No, his attention and worry and anger and fright was directed entirely at Katara, who was on her knees next to the Admiral, her hands and feet held within metal casts, her head in a steel brace, her mouth gagged, her arms and legs chained together. She seemed to have given up in struggling, and her pleading blue eyes betrayed desperation. The Admiral’s hand was at the waterbender’s temple, and in their other palm danced a raging inferno. The message was clear: one wrong move, and Katara’s head would be a greasemark.</p><p>“Let her go,” Aang said shakily, pain inflicting his voice.</p><p>“Turn off the Avatar State,” responded the Admiral plainly, their voice reverberating in their helmet and entirely unidentifiable. “<em>Then </em>we’ll talk.”</p><p>Reluctantly, Aang dispelled his fire, earth, water, and air, his tattoos and eyes dimming to their normal colors. Sokka moved towards him, but the Admiral raised their hand, touting poisonously, “Ah, ah, ah, you stay back, boy. It’s just me and the Avatar talking now. Unless you want your sister’s brains deep-fried.”</p><p>Sokka snarled, but Suki held him back, whispering in his ear, “It’s not worth it.”</p><p>“Hold on just one minute,” interrupted Zuko, pointing at the officer. “You can try to hide it behind the tinny echo in that helmet, but I’d recognize that voice anywhere—<em>Azula</em>.”</p><p>The Admiral hesitated, then, with a fluid motion, plucked the helm from their skull, revealing a face everyone in attendance knew all too well. The Princess of the Fire Nation stood proud, her long hair as black as midnight unfurling behind her like a flag on a mast, her arched cheekbones and golden eyes reminding Sokka all too much of Zuko’s mother. “Took you long enough, Zuzu. I was beginning to worry for your mental state.”</p><p>“<em>My </em>mental state? I haven’t seen you in <em>years</em>! <em>No one </em>has! We declared you officially dead six months ago!” he shouted. “And what the fuck are you doing here, playing dress-up with the Raiders? If this is about taking back the throne—”</p><p>“Brother dearest, you’ve had half a <em>decade </em>to be Fire Lord and you’re <em>still </em>thinking this small? I pity your people,” Azula drawled through a veneer of mock worry. “I don’t want to be <em>Fire Lord</em>. I don’t even want to be <em>Phoenix King</em>, though the Raiders insist on calling me so. That’s all in the past.”</p><p>“Then what do you want?” Aang demanded, hands curling into fists. “To torture us all <em>just a little more</em>?”</p><p>“No, Avatar,” Azula intoned. “I. Want. <em>You</em>. Or, more accurately, <em>your help</em>.”</p><p>The airbender was taken aback. “My <em>help</em>? I would <em>never</em> help someone like you!”</p><p>The Princess grinned venomously. “Let me rephrase that, since I know you’re just a simple monk: I don’t <em>want </em>your help. No, that’s too shortsighted. I’ve spent years working to get to this very spot, <em>years</em> tearing through books for information on the ancient civilizations and the Avatar, <em>years </em>amassing loyal followers, <em>years </em>formulating and concocting this plan. And all the pieces fell in place oh so easily. So no, Zuko, I don’t want to be Fire Lord, or Phoenix King. I want to serve myself. I want to reunite this dead empire. And I <em>will </em>have not the help of the Avatar, but the <em>power</em> of the Avatar.”</p><p>Sokka’s eyes widened. “You want him—”</p><p>“—As my secret weapon. What do you say, nomad? There is much we could accomplish together. And you could be with the woman you love,” Azula uttered, before lighting up her hand close to Katara’s face with a dull glow. “So, speak now, or forever hold your peace.”</p><p>Aang was frozen. The entire roof had come to complete silence, but Sokka could hear his breath quicken. The airbender looked at Katara, then at Azula, then over his shoulder at his friends. “I don’t… I can’t… I…”</p><p>The Avatar was put in an impossible position. It was a worst case scenario, something Sokka still had nightmares about: abandoning his friends and his worldly duties, or saving the love of his life. The tribesman could see the pure fear in his best friend’s eyes as they locked gazes once more. Aang hung his head, and for a moment, Sokka thought he was turning his back on Katara, and felt simultaneous rushes of anger and anguish. But then, the airbender spoke.</p><p>“I… I’m sorry, Sokka,” he said in a small voice. “I must… I have to protect her.”</p><p>Katara jerked wildly in her bonds, no doubt screaming for Aang to reconsider, because her life was not worth the prospect of the Avatar’s sheer power in the hands of the unjust. But he would not, he insisted, as a tear rolled down his cheek.</p><p>“Excellent,” Azula smoothly interjected, “now, bring those four down. We can have no more interruptions if we’re going to conquer the world.”</p><p>Sniffling, Aang mumbled, “You’d better leave, guys.”</p><p>Sokka barged ahead, exclaiming, “Like hell we will!”</p><p>He scowled. “I said, <em>LEAVE</em>!”</p><p>The tribesman kept on coming, but Aang pulled a hunk of marble from the floor and threw it at him. Then the Avatar advanced. Sokka suddenly realized he wasn’t messing around. He was dead serious. Sokka had seen Aang in battle as a fully-fledged Avatar, and every time had silently thanked his lucky stars that he was on the right side of the fight. But apparently, today he was not. Stumbling back a few paces, he tugged on Suki’s hand, yelling, “<em>Run!</em>”</p><p>The four remaining members of Team Avatar ran. They slammed through a line of spellbound Raiders and tumbled down the stairs, Aang hot on their heels and encapsulated in the unstoppable Avatar State. The staircase creaked and shook as Aang tried to rip it from its foundations and Toph made the marble grow around his hands and feet, trapping them. “I thought you were different, Twinkletoes!” she cried, holding steady as the others flew past her.</p><p>“<em>You don’t understand. You can never understand</em>,” the thousand voices of the Avatar proclaimed in unison.</p><p>Unable to hold him back any longer, Toph let go and leapt over the side of the stairs just as they shattered like thin ice on a freezing lake. She plummeted a dozen yards before Zuko caught her at the ground floor with an almighty grunt and they sprinted away together. Sokka stuck his head back through the entrance to see what was going on, only to witness Aang flying towards him at high velocity. The warrior threw up his arms, bracing for the worst, only for the Fire Lord to come to his aid by erecting a barrier of livid flames in the doorway, stopping the Avatar for just enough time to get away.</p><p>Through the city streets they went, ducking from building to building, trying to lose Aang and the amassing group of Raiders and firebenders trailing them. They crossed one bridge, then scrambled across an aqueduct, and then they found themselves back in the tower they’d entered through. As the airbender paused in midair, he began volleying projectiles at Team Avatar while they ascended the outside of the tower. Zuko and Toph put up whatever defense they could, but it seemed futile. Sokka whipped out his boomerang and chucked it, watching as it curved through the sky, headed straight for the back of the occupied Aang’s head. The impact never came. Just before collision the Avatar reached out behind him and snapped the boomerang out of the air, gripping it tightly as it melted away at his touch into molten liquid.</p><p>“Boomy…” gulped Sokka, dumbfounded.</p><p>The quartet dashed through the room with the brazier and climbed the spiral staircase, their feet slipping on the damp stone. Aang hadn’t followed them, but they were still terrified, reaching the top in mere minutes. Sokka, Suki, Zuko, and Toph burst out into the sunlight and gulped in breaths of sticky, salty oxygen. The sound of distant waves crashing filled their ears, echoing through the mouth of the cave they just exited. The bellowing roar of a sky bison rang out from somewhere far below, and Sokka abruptly realized they were back where they’d started, just a few hundred feet higher.</p><p>“It’s the cliff! It’s Appa!” cheered Toph, pumping her fists.</p><p>Sokka raced to the edge and shouted down to the beach, “Here boy! Up here!”</p><p>Appa looked up, Momo nestled comfortably on his head. When he saw the tribesman, the bison grinned toothily and slapped his tail into the sand, rocketing to the clouds.</p><p>“Oh man, I’ve never been happier to see you!” laughed Sokka, as Appa drifted closer.</p><p>“<em>Stop!</em>”</p><p>The sky bison twirled, having heard the voice of his best friend. Sokka felt his blood turn ice-cold when he saw Aang hanging there, cloaked in a sphere of wind. “<em>Come to me, Appa.</em>”</p><p>The beast didn’t move, looking from the airbender to the other four and back again. Sokka could practically see the machinery at work in his head. Something was <em>off </em>about Aang, and not in a good way. And every sign being given by a handful of Appa’s other closest human friends agreed with that. But, then again, the sky bison had been Aang’s companion for forever, through thick and thin. Aang would never steer him wrong.</p><p>"Why are you doing this, Aang?" Toph demanded. "It's one life versus the world. I know I'm not exactly the sentimental type you are, but as the Avatar you of all people should be able to understand the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few! Even when it's <em>Katara</em>!"</p><p>Aang's voice, as well as the voice of the innumerable Avatars of the past, spoke hollowly together, "<em>I am the Avatar. I am the bridge between this world and the Spirit world. I must protect the Other Half.</em>"</p><p>"The <em>hell </em>is the <em>Other Half</em>?"</p><p>Sokka reached out to the floating sky bison. "Appa, please," begged the warrior, "help us."</p><p>Already knowing something was fishy, the sheer desperation in the voice of the usually jovial Water Tribe boy set off all kinds of alarm bells for Appa. In a flash, he did a backflip, blowing a gust of wind at the Avatar and then zipping low to the ground, close enough for the quartet to hop on his back. The sky bison flew as fast as he could. When they penetrated the cloud layer, though, he let out one last desperate moan as Aang was left behind.</p><p>"We failed," whimpered Zuko. "We failed worse than we could have ever imagined."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A/N: (From the comments.) Aang being so aggressive here is due to a mixture of factors. In a large part, that's because of him being emotionally unstable and confused right now, but he's also doing it to "put on a show" for Azula so that he's certain she won't hurt Katara. And of course, the Avatar State is making him go a little wild as well, like in the final battle with Ozai. Don't worry, Aang won't be unhinged going forward, but he's not gonna be having a good time, either.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. The Avatar and Her</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“What in the <em>fuck </em>is going on?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko pinched his nose, refusing to open his eyelids. “Language, Toph.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like you don’t swear all the time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I swear when things get emotionally out of hand. <em>You </em>have no filter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The earthbender rolled her pale eyes. “I think swearing is <em>apt </em>given the situation we’re in. Sokka, back me up here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Upon hearing no reply, Toph turned around, locating the Water Tribesman right where he had been—seated on Appa’s head next to Suki, steadfastly piloting the sky bison. “Didja hear me, waterboy?” she asked again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not in the mood, Toph,” the young man growled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, alright, jeez, fine. No need to get mad. I’m just trying to figure out how all this works. Katara is kidnapped by the Raiders. She’s the bait and we fell for it hook, line, and sinker. She’s then used as leverage to get Aang to pledge his allegiance to Azula—who, by the way, is <em>absolutely psychotic </em>and wants to build her own empire—and suddenly, the Southern Raiders are the most powerful group of people on the planet. Have I got all that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko scraped his fingers across his face. “Yes, Toph, you got it all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But the mystery remains—what is the <em>Other Half</em>?” she wondered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a common expression people use to refer to their significant others. Katara is the person that ‘completes’ Aang, so to speak.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But he said it so <em>freakily</em>. There has to be something more to this. I know Aang loves her, but I really thought that when push came to shove, and it was the world or her, that he would have—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can we <em>not </em>have this conversation right now?” erupted Sokka. “Let’s just… wait until we land.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A few long, long hours later, as the sun was being swallowed by the horizon, the Fire Nation Capital finally appeared. Zuko was slumped against Appa’s saddle, watching the water and ground below fly past before it abruptly skipped to streets and shops. The Capital was as busy as ever, with not a single person aware of the fact that another war might be bearing down on them. He sighed deeply. That was precisely what he had become Fire Lord to do: stop wars. What did that make him now? A failure, surely.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> “Oh, Spirits, this did not turn out how I’d hoped,” he hissed under his breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Royal Palace rose triumphantly over the metropolis, but even its regal sight wasn’t enough to cheer up what remained of Team Avatar. Heads hung and shoulders slumped, when the four of them landed they made a beeline for the Throne Room, in desperate need of counsel with Fire Lord-for-now Iroh. Zuko was perplexed, however, when he noticed the curtains to the Throne Room were drawn, and an armed guard stood outside. <em>Shit, wait, that means there’s </em>war planning <em>going on in there! How could they have learned of Aang so soon?</em> the young man realized, and he sprinted on ahead, throwing back the curtain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah ha! Another great victory!” cheered Iroh, punching the air, as several other generals looked on with contempt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Terrified, Zuko gasped, “Uncle, what are you—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The old man looked up, then broke into a massive grin and pointed at the great map before him. “Nephew! You are just in time to see the Dragon of the West vanquish his foes with no mercy to spare!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko glanced down and scowled, seeing colorful wax figurines of a few armies scattered across the map. “You’re playing a <em>board game</em>? What, did you set another national holiday?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iroh stroked his beard. “No, I didn’t but come to think of it a national board game day <em>would </em>be fun, wouldn’t it, Xi?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course, Iroh,” replied the older general next to him, punching him in the arm. “Board games were all that kept us sane at the Siege of Ba Sing Se.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No more board games!” screamed Zuko. “Everyone who isn’t my uncle and my friends, <em>get out</em>!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Xi and the other pair of older officers shot him sour looks but nonetheless filed out. As Sokka, Toph, and Suki approached, Iroh seemed to grow more concerned, his bushy brow furrowing. “What may be your problem, nephew? Did you find Katara?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“…Yes, and no. We found her, but, uh, she didn’t come along with us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh? Why was that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko looked around, then pressed his uncle and friends to follow him deeper into the chamber, so that their voices might be muffled by the cracking of the bonfires at the edge of the room. “We ran into Azula.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“AZULA?” the firebender exclaimed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everyone shushed him frantically. “Yes, <em>Azula</em>,” his nephew insisted. “She’s leading the Raiders. And she kidnapped Katara to use her as bait for us. And Aang… Aang got hooked.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t mean—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“<em>I mean </em>the Avatar, the most powerful mortal being in the universe, is working with Azula. Not because he wants to, but because if he doesn’t Katara would be a smear on the pavement.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iroh blinked a few times, falling into thought, before stating, “I think it would be best that you do not mention this predicament with the Avatar to anyone outside of the room. Not yet anyways.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. And I won’t retake the crown just yet, because I might have to go run off again,” nodded Zuko. “We should address the nation together, though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You two done yet?” snapped Sokka. “We need to get to work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Doing what? An attack on a fully-fledged Avatar would be suicide, no matter how large an army one has at their disposal,” Iroh warned. “Do not be a fool and rush into things.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sokka crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. “I don’t mean an <em>attack</em>, I mean—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toph knocked the boys away and butted in, declaring, “Iroh, you’re old, you’re wise, you’re traveled. Do you have any clue what the ‘Other Half’ is?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In what context?” the former general asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In the Avatar, Spirit World, whooshy-whooshy magic context.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean. Why, is it important?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shrugged. “It’s only the last thing Aang said to us before we escaped. Like he was explaining himself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iroh spread his hands, admitting, “I’m sorry, but I have no idea what that could mean. You could always try the Royal Archives, however. In fact,” he said, eyeing the long shadows of late afternoon peeking under the curtain from the sunlit hall, “why don’t you all head down there now, and we’ll address the nation in the morning? No sense sending everyone into a panic just before nightfall.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re right, you’re right,” agreed Zuko, nodding his head and sighing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Royal Archives were in the depths beneath the palace, having been reopened for scholarly use by Zuko in his first month as the Fire Lord. His grandfather, Sozin, had been the one to seal them away, for the treasure trove of knowledge inside surely would have undermined the propaganda and misinformation campaign that had radicalized the Fire Nation populace. The firebender and his friends plunged into the bowels of the building, in search of the books and scrolls that could hopefully shed some light on the situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is where I discovered my <em>true </em>heritage, you know,” explained Zuko, holding his torch aloft as the stairs bottomed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mm-<em>hmm</em>,” Sokka hummed, glaring skeptically around the hall. “This doesn’t look like a library to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s because this isn’t the library, idiot,” the older boy grumbled, cutting to the right. “<em>This </em>is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko swept back a curtain and stepped into a great antechamber. The space was huge, though the rows upon rows upon rows of honeycomb shelves stuffed with parchment rolls and platforms piled high with books and papers made everything feel compact and tight. Sokka and Suki’s jaws hit the floor, which itself was engraved with delicate images of dancing flames that darted between the corridors of literature.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think I’m in heaven,” squeaked Suki.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toph bumped her way to the front of the pack and planted both feet firmly, pointing directly ahead of her into the labyrinth of wisdom. “Alright, suckers, I might be blind but I’m not deaf. This is the place. I want you three out there searching for anything you can dig up on the Central Water Tribe, the Aquatic Empire, and the ‘Other Half.’ If you absolutely need to see my beautiful face, I’ll be at the nearest seating area. Zuko, where might that be?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Straight ahead, there’s a big table and chairs.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you, Sparky,” she said cheerily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sparky?” the Fire Lord mumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold on, why are <em>we </em>doing all the work while <em>you </em>just kick back and relax?” Sokka indignantly asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toph spun around and, with every word she said, flicked him between the eyes. “Because. I. Am. <em>Blind</em>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The tribesman slapped her hand away. “Yeah, I <em>know that</em>. Zuko, don’t you have <em>anything </em>a blind person could be useful with in here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He scratched his chin and pondered for a second. “There are a few historical tomes written in a tactile language—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great. She gets those,” ordered Sokka.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But they’re about ancient tomato farming in the Earth Kingdom.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sokka’s eye twitched. “Just make her read them so she can feel like she’s doing <em>something</em>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Into the library they went, searching for any book about Water Tribe legends, ancient history, spiritual concepts, or the Avatar. There were a lot to sift through. Stack after stack after stack of books were acquired and placed on the big meeting table in the room’s center, and when they could carry no more, the four of them took their seats and started pouring over everything. Every scrap of paper was noticed, every word was read, every character was analyzed. It was a massive undertaking, and it went on for hours, stretching into the night. Finally, Zuko could not fight to keep his eyelids open any longer, and his head slumped down with a solid <em>thunk</em>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A good while later, the Fire Lord awoke with a start. He peeled his face from an embossed cover and rubbed his eyes, groaning softly, “I need to sleep more.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His words were met with replies of rolling snores. Zuko observed his friends, seeing they were all thoroughly zonked out. He wondered if he should wake them or not, but decided against it. They needed it, and besides, now that he was up, he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep for the rest of the night. Pushing his chair back quietly over the glossy floor, the bender rose, scooped up a fistful of scrolls and a single book, and wandered off in search of a bed. <em>Shit</em>, he thought suddenly, <em>I didn’t even see Mai when I got back.</em></span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko heaved himself up the stairs and broke for his chambers. But, as he passed a window, he made the mistake of looking outside, and he stopped in his tracks. Though the palace, ringed by tropical gardens and grounds as it was, was separate from the capital city itself, one building could be seen anywhere from within the metropolitan limits: the new temple dedicated to Avatar Roku. Without quite realizing what he was doing, Zuko found himself climbing out the window, dropping to the ground below, and marching with a purpose to the palace gates. The guards at the front merely nodded when he passed them by, and Zuko absentmindedly returned the gesture. By that point, the streets were empty, and the Fire Lord could walk without impairment of an entourage through the city. Reaching the temple’s steps, he looked up and couldn’t help but feel incredibly small, seeing the elegant sloping rooves flying forth from red brick, the pointed steeple piercing the night sky.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Inside didn’t make him feel much more significant. Zuko squinted at the colossus before him, a statue of his great-grandfather that was almost as tall as the building it was in. The old temple constructed in honor of Roku had been a very different place, an unnecessarily confusing maze of hallways and staircases and located on a remote island no one ever visited. Zuko had also been the one to accidentally help sink the original into a pool of magma, so this one he’d decided to construct as far away from a volcano and as close to home as possible, with a far more simple design.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kneeling at the foot of the monument, Zuko prayed. “Avatar Roku,” he whispered under his breath, “please, lend me your guidance.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then rise and speak, young Fire Lord.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko glanced up and gaped at the figure of Avatar Roku—not the statue, but a <em>living</em>, <em>breathing </em>Avatar Roku. The man stood there in the flesh, his gray hair and beard almost reaching the floor, his hands hidden within the folds of his regal robes. “Great-grandfather!” Zuko squealed, quickly jerking his head back down at the floor in a sign of respect for his elder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I said <em>rise</em>, Zuko. I may be your ancestor, but <em>you </em>are my Fire Lord. If anything, I should be the one bowing to you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sheepishly, the younger man got up, and as he stood, he suddenly noticed his surroundings had shifted. No longer was he in the temple. He was on a mountaintop, shrouded in a cloak of shifting, amorphous white smoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where are we?” he wondered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Roku shook his head. “That does not matter. Voice your concerns and your questions. I may have answers.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I have so many concerns, and so many questions.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then let us waste no time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell me this then: what is the <em>Other Half</em>?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Roku narrowed his eyes. “How have you heard about such things?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you know about Aang?” asked Zuko, swallowing hard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do I know what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Fire Lord quickly explained his predicament, how the airbender had been roped into Azula’s maniacal scheming with Katara held at swordpoint. With every word that passed Zuko’s lips, Roku’s face fell further, until his mouth was twisted into a harsh grimace.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“By the Spirits, that boy is a <em>fool</em>!” the former Avatar roared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean, I can kind of understand his situation. He’s in an impossible place, and I don’t really know I would have been able to choose the world over my wife.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Roku’s nostrils flared as he yelled, “Yes, but <em>you </em>are not the Avatar. <em>You </em>are fully human, and your duties are to the mortal plane. But Aang? Aang does not just belong to the Four Nations, nor even the human race! He is the bridge that connects the Spirit World and the physical flesh. The Avatar must be apolitical, must rise above mortal demands, because he is the liaison across realms!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you saying he should have let Katara <em>die</em>?” choked Zuko.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If I had been in his situation, I would have let the love of my life die. Not because I wished it, but because the <em>world comes first</em>!” the old man rumbled, fire in his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m—I’m sure he had good reasoning. He said he ‘must protect the Other Half.’ We don’t know what the <em>Other Half </em>is, though, and we were hoping it might shed some light on this whole debacle.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Roku looked as though he might blow a gasket but managed to calm himself down before speaking again. “The <em>Other Half </em>comes from an old legend. Men and women used to be one entity back in ancient times, even before bending was discovered. But they were too powerful. They were like gods. They attempted to build a tower to the heavens, but the Spirits knocked it down. These humans tried to fight back, to revolt, but they were defeated and punished, split in twain forevermore. Man and woman. Male and female. Yin and yang. Cursed to walk the earth for all eternity, searching for one’s soulmate. Their <em>other half</em>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko frowned. “…So, that’s it, then. Aang’s just worried about Katara?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. There is more. The counterpart of an average person’s soul is but another average soul. Not so with the Avatar, whose spirit is bolstered by otherworldly elements. And although they are indeed an otherworldly being, they are still decidedly <em>human</em>. They, too, have a soulmate. This soulmate—their <em>Other Half</em>, capitalized—is what binds them to this dimension. They are what keep the Avatar from spiraling into infinity. They keep us human. And if one were to sever that bridge violently… then the Avatar would become disconnected from this world. They would lose their humanity and become a shell puppeted by the Spirits until their body perishes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, if the Other Half dies violently, then the Avatar’s mind… disappears?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Precisely,” Roku nodded. “And I would have been willing to make that sacrifice, had I been in his place. <em>Every </em>Avatar would have been. And besides, <em>no one </em>should even know about this! The Other Half is the Avatar’s one true weakness! He should not have told you, nor anyone else!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of himself. Biting his lip, he asked, “Is there any way to stop Aang, short of a full-scale war?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Roku paused. He examined his great-grandson, inspecting his plain red-and-gold gi and the swords holstered at his hip. Zuko could tell something of great importance was on his tongue, but signs of a mental war being waged in the Avatar’s mind were just as obvious. Finally, with great effort, Roku announced, “There is <em>one </em>way, though it will be difficult.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko laughed and spread his hands. “What choice do I have?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reluctantly, the older man continued, “The Avatar is a powerful being, one capable of toppling demigods and flattening entire armies. Avatars are, in general, people of high morals, but every once in a while, a bad apple sours the bushel. These Avatars are called <em>Rogues</em>, and they use their powers for evildoing or selfish purposes. Obviously, these demons cannot stand, but vanquishing an Avatar is a nigh-indomitable task alone. So, a failsafe was built in by the Spirits. Four benders, each representing one Element and taught by the original benders of those Elements who taught mankind their ways all those eons ago, must band together to defeat the Avatar in combat. You already have half of these benders: you yourself have learned the ways of the dragons, and your blind friend, Toph, was taught to earthbend by the badger moles of the Earth Kingdom. Only water and air remain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But that’s no good,” protested the Fire Lord. “Aang is the last airbender. There are no more Nomads we could enlist the help from. And how is a waterbender supposed to learn from the <em>Moon</em>?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“With no other surviving Nomads save the Avatar, then someone of a different nation must take up the mantle of air. The Spirits understand your plight, and the original teachers can even bestow nonbenders with temporary power. Your friend, the Kyoshi Warrior… her preferred weapons are fans, no? And regarding the Moon, you may want to talk to your other Water Tribe acquaintance about that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko clasped his clammy palms to his forehead, moaning, “This is insane. This cannot be real. How have I never heard of this stuff? I spent years hunting the Avatar. I know <em>everything </em>about them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Some secrets are better kept than others, great-grandson,” Roku offered, then added sharply, “I’m afraid I must leave you now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? No, but I have so many more questions!” he replied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All of which will be answered in due time. I have said too much already.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t go, great-grandfather!” yelled the Fire Lord, as Roku took a step back into the smoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I must convene with Aang. He needs my help,” the old Avatar said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then his wrinkled, aged face was enveloped by the smog, and the mountaintop disappeared into a vortex of impenetrable blackness.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <span>/ / | \ \</span>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <span>Iroh tumbled into his seat, exhausted. Speaking before crowds didn’t frighten him, but it was incredibly taxing. He could scantly feel his toes save for the dull, incessant throbbing in them. The announcement he and his nephew had just delivered had not been easy to say, but the masses could not be allowed to wallow in blissful ignorance. Many worried faces had left that assembly, but it was better they found out now than when the Raiders launched a naval invasion of the Capital.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m glad that’s over with,” Zuko admitted, taking a seat across from his uncle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing is ever truly over, nephew, especially something as dire as this,” he responded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know what I meant.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iroh nodded, a small smile pulling at his lips. “I do, but if a moment may be enhanced by a nugget of wisdom, then who am I to deprive you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A servant entered the room, bearing gifts of great tea. He set a platter down with two ceramic teacups, a steaming pot, and bowls of milk and sugar. Iroh began to eagerly help himself, but stopped when Zuko picked an envelope up off the tray.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is this?” the firebender asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The servant bowed low, then explained, “It is official correspondence. The seal is a bit outdated, but it’s from a high-ranking naval officer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko narrowed his eyes. “An <em>admiral</em>, perhaps?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do not know,” the servant replied. “I must take my leave now, if you’ll let me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, uh, you can go,” he said, waving the attendant away. He waited until he was gone to turn back to his uncle and slide his fingers under the folded parchment. “I have a bad feeling about this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iroh mixed sugar and milk into his beverage and took a long sip as Zuko unfurled the paper inside. It wasn’t a letter, but a poster, with a small essay beneath an image of three swirls connected at a central circle—a triskelion, the rare symbol of the Four Elements combined. The swirls represented the wildness of Fire, Water, and Air, while the circle showed the solid Earth tethering them down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He read aloud, “<em>To the Peoples of the Three Nations and the Great Cities of the World: the Southern Raiders are no more. In their stead has risen a new Empire. We are not a hateful group. We understand the divisions faced in modern society. The forced disbandment of former Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom, which split families and friendships based upon ethnicity and creed, was in many ways evil, no matter the compromises struck. This separation of peoples because of nationality is despicable, and all world leaders are complicit in these actions, both in the Fire Nation colonies and beyond. There is no purity in division.</em></span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Our Empire is diverse, and we have the blessing of the Avatar on our side, the very symbol of global unity. So, as your kings and chiefs squabble, rise up. Join us. The Imperial Union values your voice.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Unity through Strength. Strength through Unity.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iroh blinked, mulling over the words he’d just heard. Then he said, “That was <em>brilliant </em>propaganda.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think they were being genuine,” responded Zuko.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever the case, this is very worrisome,” he sighed. “This is a call to arms, and I fear that those still indoctrinated by my brother’s tall tales of the Fire Nation waging war to unify all peoples will heed it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Assuming they can get the message out, that is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why do you think we are reading a poster, and not a letter, nephew?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zuko looked down at the paper he held, hissing, “…Shit. This has to be plastered on every blank wall all over the world at this point.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We will have to act fast if we hope to beat the rising tide of dissent in the Fire Nation and the world at large. Tell me again what your plan was?” pressed Iroh, leaning forward in his comfortable chair and putting his teacup and saucer to the side. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They had a war to stop.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
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